Week in Europe 22 April 2002

Results of G8 Environment: time to move from words to deeds on world sustainable development

The Environment Ministers of the eight major industrialised countries, and the European Commissioner responsible for the Environment, met in Banff, Canada over the weekend to discuss the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 2 September 2002. In addition, the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting took the opportunity to hold a discussion on climate change.

[Background paper IP/02/561]

Commission launches open consultation on pan-European government e-services

An online consultation on the needs of citizens and enterprises for government e-services at the European level ('pan-European government e-services') was launched on 8 April 2002 by the IDA (Interchange of Data between Administrations) programme of the Enterprise Directorate General of the European Commission. The consultation is available on the European Commission's EUROPA web site. Full details of the consultation can be found at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/consultations/government_e-services/index.htm

Additional information on the IDA programme can be obtained at:

http://www.europa.eu.int/ispo/ida

For further information please contact: ida-central@cec.eu.int

[Background paper IP/02/564]

Destruction of experimental GMO field trials is unacceptable, says European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin

Following the destruction of an experimental field trial with genetically modified colza in Alost, Belgium, last week, the latest in a series of recent attacks on field trials across Europe, European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin expressed his firm disapproval for these acts of violence. Field trials are conducted for developing genetically modified as well as conventional plant varieties. The plant trials destroyed during the attacks had been authorised by Belgian authorities and were carried out under the appropriate health and safety conditions, in full compliance with EU and local legislation. Plants targeted by vandals had been modified through new, more precise and efficient genetic methods. Adding the same genes through conventional plant breeding methods is a far more imprecise and longer process. If carried out in the proper safety framework, promising GMO technologies are expected to enhance EU performance in health, environmental and agricultural policy.

For further information please see:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/index.html

Information on the Round Table is available at http://biosociety.cordis.lu/

[Background paper IP/02/577]

Vladimir Putin and Romano Prodi discuss EU-Russia relations

President of the Russian Federation, Mr Vladimir Putin called yesterday European Commission President Romano Prodi to discuss preparations for the forthcoming high-level meetings between EU and Russia. During a long phone conversation the two presidents concentrated on the expected visit of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to Brussels and on the next EU-Russia Summit in Moscow. Prime Minister Kasjanov will visit the Commission on Wednesday, 24 April. During his visit he will have a bilateral discussion with President Prodi and a meeting with the college of Commissioners. The next EU-Russia Summit will be held in Moscow on Wednesday, 29 May. The agenda it yet to be finalised but among other issues the meeting is likely to focus on the preparations for the creation of a Common European Economic Area and on the energy dialogue.

Anna Diamantopoulou welcomes tough new EU rules against sexual harassment at work

Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou has welcomed joint adoption by Council and Parliament of a new EU law extending the scope of the 1976 Directive on equality in the workplace. The amended Directive, proposed by the Commission two years ago, will provide stronger support for any employee who feels s/he has been treated unfairly by an employer because of their sex. For the first time at EU level, binding legislation will now define sexual harassment and will establish that it constitutes a form of sex discrimination. The new Directive will include provisions for enforcement, compensation without an upper limit, and sanctions. The Directive also means that employers will need to introduce preventive measures against sexual harassment and to give a regular 'equality' report to every employee in the enterprise. According to a study conducted for the European Commission, 40-50% of women in the EU considered that they had been sexually harassed at least once in their working lives, and 10% of men. The Directive will enter into force in 2005.

[Background paper IP/02/579]

EU launches euro 200m international research programme to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis

At a Spanish Presidency conference to be held in Barcelona on 19 April 2002, European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin will announce the launch of the first phase of an international research and development programme for treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Fourteen EU countries and Norway will co-ordinate their national research efforts and capacities through a joint platform. The programme will be based on full partnership agreements with developing countries. The aim is to speed up the development and production of vaccines and drugs to meet the needs of the world's most vulnerable populations. The programme will gather a critical mass of expertise and funding to sponsor clinical trials in public-private partnerships across Africa and enhance African countries' development and production capabilities. The "European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Programme" is a priority within the EU's 6th Research Framework Programme (2002 - 2006). The Commission proposes to allocate to the initiative € 200 million over five years

[Background paper IP/02/586]

Financial services: Commission services publish analysis of repercussions of Enron collapse

The European Commission's services have published online an initial analysis of the repercussions for the EU of the collapse of Enron. The paper, entitled "A first response to Enron related policy issues", outlines steps that need to be taken to guard against similar events in Europe. It was presented by Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein to the informal meeting of Economics and Finance Ministers in Oviedo on 12-14 April (see also MEMO/02/72). Ministers welcomed the paper and endorsed the Commission's proposal to ask its High Level Group of Company Law Experts to review further corporate governance and auditing issues in the light of the Enron case. The paper emphasises that the EU is already working on most Enron-related regulatory issues through the Financial Services Action Plan, which aims to establish an efficient and competitive capital market that deserves investors' trust. It highlights policy initiatives in five priority areas: financial reporting, statutory audit, corporate governance, transparency and finally the regulation of financial analysts and credit rating agencies. The full text of the paper can be found on the Commission's Europa site at: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/company/company/index.htm

[Background paper IP/02/584]

Attitudes on the euro outside the Euro Zone

According to the latest Flash Eurobarometer survey in three EU member states outside the euro zone, 75% of Danish people take the launching of euro as a major event in the European history, while 61% British think the same. 88% Danish, 70% Swedish, and 72% British believe that the euro will become their national currency one day. 56% Swedish would be very or quite satisfied (while 33% unsatisfied); in Denmark the ratio is 50% to 38%, in Britain 35% to 54%. One quarter of all citizens of those three countries had already had the euro banknotes or coins in their hands. The full survey is available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion

Enlargement news

Macroeconomic and financial sector stability developments in candidate countries

The European Commission publishes the full report on "Macroeconomic and financial stability developments in candidate countries". This report is linked to the Commission Information Note presented by EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes on 12 March 2002 on the same subject (see IP/02/389). It consists of an overview, outlining main common themes on macroeconomic and financial sector stability challenges in candidate countries and of thirteen country-specific chapters. Full report available on:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/publications/enlargement_papers/enlargementpapers08_en.htm

Pre-accession farm aid for Czech Republic: Go-ahead for euro 22.4 million per year Sapard programme

The European Commission decided to confer the management of Sapard aid to the Czech authorities. This means that the Czech Republic can now begin the implementation of its Sapard programme. Under this scheme, the Czech Republic will now be entitled to €22.4million annually. Payment of the first advance can now be made (maximum 49% of the annual amount). This first decision on the provisional conferral of management of aid covers seven out of the nine measures which make up the SAPARD Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development for the Czech Republic. These are: (i) "Investments in Agricultural holdings (ii) Improving the processing and marketing of agricultural and fishery products (iii) Improving the structures for quality controls of foodstuffs and for consumer protection (iv) Land improvement and reparcelling (v) Renovation and development of villages and rural infrastructure (vi) Development and diversification of economic activities providing for multiple activities and alternative income (vii) Technical Assistance. Taken together these measures represent around 93% of the Community contribution.

[Background paper IP/02/565]

Czech accession "should not be hindered by Benes decrees"

Czech accession to the EU should not be compromised or hindered by history, insisted European Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Czech prime minister Milos Zeman, in Prague on 11 April. They issued a joint statement affirming that legislation from the past - particularly the post-war Czechoslovak laws on rights of German and Austrian citizens, known generally as the Benes decrees - was not an impediment to the future. And they stressed the need to look forwards rather than backwards. The move is part of a determined attempt to calm tensions that have shown themselves recently in Germany and Austria over the impact of these laws.

"European integration has always primarily been a political process. Since its very beginning, the key objective has been to overcome old divisions, enmities and prejudices, and to strengthen peace, justice, freedom and security," said Verheugen and Zeman. Despite "the pain and suffering caused by the horrors of the Second World War," European integration means "to move forward from there - not to look back in acrimony and continue fighting old battles".

"Some of these acts would not pass muster today if judged by current standards - but they belong to history," said the Verheugen-Zeman statement. The EU-Czech assessment currently underway has demonstrated that the laws on citizenship and on property "no longer produce legal effects" and "are not part of the accession negotiations and should have no bearing on them," it went on. Some other acts are still under scrutiny and subject to further clarification, and Czechoslovak restitution legislation and practice since the early 1990s is also being reviewed by the Czech authorities. But the EU and its member states must judge candidate states "on their present, not their past performance" according to the statement, which warns of "the need to guard against awakening the demons of nationalism".

Commissioner Verheugen made his intentions even clearer later in the day in a speech at Charles University in Prague: "It gives me great cause for concern when in Austria or Germany, voices are heard casting doubt on the suitability of the Czechs for EU membership because of the Czechoslovak Presidential decrees. However, one should not attach too much importance to it. In both countries, only a minority of people listen to these voices. In Germany, the country I know better of the two, it is a tiny and ever shrinking minority. What worries me, though, is that sections of Czech public opinion are still worried that people in the Czech Republic could still be driven out of their homes by some kind of lawsuit for repossession. The law as it stands makes that quite impossible and no-one in Europe would or could even change that," he insisted. "Perhaps," he suggested, "the Czechs themselves should finally start to believe this".

Last chance for Cyprus reunification?

The EU's accession timetable requires that the basic elements of an agreement between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities emerge in the course of this summer, according to Michael Emerson and Nathalie Tocci of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), in their latest study, "Towards resolution of the Cyprus conflict". At any event, they predict, this may well be the last chance for re-unification of the island. Should the divided island join the EU, there would be grave consequences for EU-Turkish relations. If Cyprus does not join, the entire EU enlargement could founder on a Greek veto. "There is only one good outcome, and two bad ones," it says.

The new report explores how a simultaneous re-unification and accession to the EU might be shaped, with a transformation of "the political structures and interests that have up to now made it impossible to resolve the division of the island". The proposed solution includes a three-tier political structure - the EU, the common state, and the two constituent states, with some adjustment of the territorial border in favour of the Greek Cypriot community, to resolve a substantial part of the refugee return problem, and property compensation arrangements for most of the others.