The Week in Europe 22-28/07/02

EU news in brief

Ozone layer: Commission opens infringement procedures against all Member States

The European Commission has decided to formally request all Member States to provide information on progress made in controlling substances that damage the ozone layer. Member States were required to provide this information by 31 December 2001 under the terms of the EU's Ozone Regulation. Protection of the Earth's ozone layer is essential as it blocks out harmful solar radiation that causes skin cancer and other human diseases, reduces crop production and harms marine life. The Ozone Regulation obliges Member States to report on systems established for recovering ozone depleting substances, the facilities installed, the qualification requirements for personnel and the quantities recovered. The requests now sent to Member States take the form of so-called 'letters of formal notice', the first stage of infringement procedures under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. In the absence of a satisfactory response within two months, the Commission may issue formal requests (so-called "reasoned opinions") to Member States to set up the systems required under the Ozone Regulation, following which continued failure to report may result in Court action. For current statistics on infringements against all Member States, please visit the following web-site:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgb/droit_com/index_en.htm#infractions

[Background paper IP/02/1112]

Commission proposes co-generation Directive to save energy and combat climate change

A proposal for a Directive aimed at saving energy and combating climate change by promoting the co-generation of heat and power was presented by the European Commission. Co-generation is a technique through which heat and electricity are produced in one single process. New co-generation plants save at least 10% of the fuel otherwise used for separate production of heat and electricity. The full text of the proposal will be available on the Europa website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/en/fa_2_en.html

[Background paper IP/02/1124]

Commission proposes new rules for controls on food of animal origin

Official controls relating to hygiene of food of animal origin for human consumption are to be revamped under a new proposal adopted by the European Commission. The proposal is one of five making up the so-called "hygiene package" of measures foreshadowed in the action plan of the Commission's White Paper on Food Safety. This proposal provides for revised rules for official controls on fresh meat, live bivalve molluscs, and milk and milk products. The central aim of the proposal is to ensure a high level of protection for consumers, giving enhanced guarantees for the safety of products of animal origin.

[Background paper IP/02/1127]

Enlargement news

Economic and Social Committee focuses on enlargement

Enlargement was one of the key themes of the plenary session of the European Union's Economic and Social Committee. In addition to reports on broad issues such as cohesion, it also adopted specific reports on Romania's and Slovenia's progress towards accession. And one of its key recommendations was that "the early involvement of the social partners and other non-governmental organisations will ensure a better understanding of the EU rules and proper implementation of them."

The future of cohesion policy in the context of enlargement depends on radical reform of the principles, general conditions, priorities and terms of cohesion policy, the committee concluded. The reform must also revise the eligibility criteria, to take account of factors such as remoteness, isolation, lack of education and entrepreneurship and absence of civil society structures, in addition to the usual criteria, the committee insisted. Changes are also needed to simplify procedures, it says, and to boost technical assistance to national and local authorities in the applicant countries, and the economic and social players, who should be called upon to play a key role in implementing programmes.

"The committee cannot accept that the future of cohesion policy should be determined by budgetary considerations alone. It therefore asks that the resources mobilised should allow an ambitious cohesion policy to be set up that meets the challenge of enlargement, enables the new regions to achieve their industrial and agricultural restructuring, addresses the need to adapt to the knowledge-based economy, guarantees a balanced distribution of activities across European territory and contributes more effectively to reducing existing disparities within the current Europe of 15", the report says.

In its report on Romania on the road to accession, the committee concluded that favourable legal provisions and the involvement of a number of public and private players has made it possible for civil society to develop along positive lines. This positive trend has also been demonstrated by the location of NGOs which, since their first appearance in Romania, tended to be set up more in urban areas but are now also to be found in rural areas. Major progress was also made in the field of the relations between NGOs and public authorities, which are starting to view NGOs as partners who can help resolve real socio-economic problems, rather than as pressure groups. This, it said, demonstrates that society in general in Romania has attained a certain level of civic maturity.

But it noted "a considerable shortage of financial, human and material resources, the level of which falls well behind the actual requirements of civil society in Romania. Attention should also be drawn to the reticence of a number of people who are afraid of any 'organised' activity. This reticence is a product of the mentalities encountered during the communist era". It also highlighted "the inadequacy of the present framework for civil dialogue in Romania and the fact that NGOs have no possibility of engaging in formal talks with the Romanian government." However, after three years of experience of co-operation with the EU-Romania Joint Consultative Committee, "it is possible to conclude that Romania has gained a better awareness of the importance of developing both social dialogue and civil dialogue."

On Slovenia, the committee remarked that it has shown "utmost willingness and ability to forge links with the European Union in all aspects: politics and institutions, economy and society, culture and communications". But it is "essential to strengthen direct, specific exchanges through cross-border partnerships between economic and social organisations capable of playing a significant role in preparing Slovenians for the referendum that they will be called upon to participate in before an accession treaty can be signed. Social and economic interest groups must be specifically consulted, not only the 60% that are currently in favour of membership (according to official figures), but especially the remaining 40%, which represent a significant share of the Slovenian population. There should be sustained support for the strategic role which economic and social organisations, and non-governmental and religious organisations, can play in boosting direct communication between populations".

The report notes with satisfaction that social partners are constantly involved in the legislative process through representation in the National Council, set up under the constitution as a consultative body of the parliament. But the Chamber of Commerce has also represented companies in dealings with the government and in collective bargaining with trade unions, and this has hampered trade union and contractual autonomy. Tripartite negotiations on a governmental level still prevail over bilateral bargaining at sectoral or company level, and a social contract for the period 2001-2004 is being established, setting out a package of standards applicable to pay, workers' rights, health and safety at work, social security and employment.

See the ESC's enlargement pages at http://www.esc.eu.int/pages/en/enlarg.htm

Presidency to outline enlargement plans to foreign ministers

The Danish Presidency will outline its programme for EU enlargement to member state foreign affairs ministers at the General Affairs Council on July 22. The Presidency will repeat its aim of concluding the negotiations before the end of 2002 with up to ten candidate countries (the countries named by the European Council in Laeken in December 2001). This, it says, will enable the new member states to participate in the next elections for the European Parliament in 2004 and fulfil the mandate of the European Council, most recently at the summit in Seville in June. The schedule foresees that the Brussels European Council in October will name the countries that could conclude negotiations at the end of the year, and solving all outstanding non-budgetary issues before the Commission finalises its regular reports, so that the Brussels summit can make it possible to provide the candidate countries in early November with all the items in the financial package. In this way negotiations could be finalised with the best-prepared candidate countries by the European Council in Copenhagen in December. The Presidency plan also includes providing support to Bulgaria and Romania in their preparations for accession, and intensifying their progress towards membership. An accordingly updated road map and revised and enhanced pre-accession strategy could then be adopted at the European Council in Copenhagen.

Danish Presidency pamphlet on enlargement

The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published a pamphlet on EU enlargement, "in order to highlight the Danish EU Presidency's top priority", it says. The pamphlet, "The Candidate Countries' Way to the EU", provides information about the political and economic process the candidates have followed to prepare themselves for EU membership, and about the enlargement process itself and its consequences for the citizens in the present and future Member States. It is a deliberate move towards increasing public understanding of enlargement. Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Mřller said he had chosen to publish the pamphlet because "Enlargement is a quite unique European project, whose success depends on broad popular involvement. It is a widespread myth that the enlargement is an elite project devised by politicians and diplomats. This is not true. Enlargement is a project of the citizens of the EU Member States and the candidate countries". Already 66% of Danes support the enlargement process, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey, and Stig Mřller attributed this to "the Danes' sense of responsibility towards the former communist countries, and their awareness of the advantages that enlargement will bring" - in enhanced security, trade, travel and residence.

The brochure can be downloaded in pdf format from the Danish presidency web site at http://www.eu2002.dk/ewebeditpro2/upload/OW.StaticContent/827/Engelsk.pdf

EIB reviews its financing to candidates

In 2001, the European Investment Bank advanced a total of 2.7 billion for projects to help the ten central European candidate countries, Cyprus and Malta comply with EU policies and standards, it says on its new website (http://www.eib.org/lending/accession/index.htm). This compares with annual lending averaging 2.1 billion in 1996-2000. Loans granted in 2001 brought aggregate financing devoted to the region since 1990 to 16.8 billion. 56% of EIB's total lending in the Accession Countries went to transport and telecom schemes: modernising and uprating the capacity of the rail and motorway network, bridges over the Danube, enhancing fixed and mobile telecommunications. To upgrade communications infrastructure, the Bank has financed links between the countries themselves as well as between the region and the EU. But 20% of the spending has gone into projects that help protect and improve the environment: water treatment and municipal waste processing in Hungary, and water supply and sewerage networks in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. In Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, flood repair and prevention projects were also financed following the flooding of recent years. And transport and environmental projects were co-financed, in a number of cases, with grant aid from the EU's ISPA programme. The EIB has also widened its lending to health and education: new university buildings in Brno, schools, hospitals and sports facilities in Lodz and a new hospital in Nicosia. And it makes loans available for companies planning inward investment in the candidate countries - because this brings benefits to the receiving country too, in terms of better employment opportunities and transfer of know-how and capital into the region.

Informační centrum Evropské unie při Delegaci Evropské komise v České republice

European Union Information Centre of the Delegation of the European Commission to the Czech Republic

Rytířská 31, 110 00 Praha 1, Česká republika

Tel.: (+420 2) 216 10 142 Fax: (+420 2) 216 10 144

e-mail: info@iceu.czhttp://www.evropska-unie.cz