The Week in Europe 26/11-02/12/02

10.12.2002 | Euroskop

The Week in Europe 26/11-02/12/02

EU news in brief

Further liberalisation of agricultural trade with the Czech Republic

In the framework of the "double profit" agreements between the EU and candidate countries, the European Commission has adopted a proposal for an Additional Protocol to the Europe Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Czech Republic, of the other part. This protocol, which consolidates all existing agricultural trade preferences between the Parties, includes further additional liberalisation of agricultural trade with the Czech Republic under the "double profit" arrangement. The agreement, which foresees an increase in preferential agricultural trade between the EU and the Czech Republic of the order of €120 million, involves the reciprocal complete liberalisation of trade in a range of products including molasses, many fruit and vegetables, honey and fruit juices. The deal also incorporates improvements to existing concessions and addresses new duty-free tariff quotas in the cereals and dairy sectors. The EU will be granted new duty-free access to the Czech market for its exports of rice and olive oil. The substantial tariff quotas on wheat, maize and barley have been granted in parallel with a commitment from the Parties to remove export subsidies for the sectors concerned. The draft agreement must now be adopted by the Council and the Czech Republic and be signed by both sides with a view to entering into force from 1 January 2003. Commenting on the proposal, Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said: "Facilitating mutual farm trade before EU accession is part of the EU's strategy to prepare both sides for the EU accession and the single market".

Candidate countries: Already 18 projects selected in 2002 from the five new participants in the MEDIA Plus programme

For now four months Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have been participating in the MEDIA Plus and MEDIA training programmes. Thanks to the special arrangements set up to allow a full participation to all 2002 MEDIA activities, the five new countries have managed to submit various projects, of which 18 have been selected for financing with a budget of about 2.5 million euro. In 2003, four new countries, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic, Cyprus and Slovenia will join the MEDIA Programme. For a comprehensive description of the MEDIA Plus and MEDIA training programmes:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/avpolicy/media/index_en.html

[Background paper IP/02/1732]

Commission calls for stronger budgetary policy coordination

The European Commission has adopted proposals to reinforce the coordination of budgetary policies. The core budget requirements remain unchanged. Member States must avoid excessive deficit positions and keep the general government debt level below 60% of GDP or diminishing at a satisfactory pace towards this reference value. Equally, the Member States should achieve budget positions that are 'close to balance or in surplus' as set out in the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). But at the same time, the Commission proposes to put more emphasis on the interrelation between budgetary policy and the need for structural reforms in the Union. The Lisbon strategy objectives have to be explicitly promoted by the member states' budgetary policies, as they are fundamental in raising Europe's growth potential. Public finances have to be in good shape both in terms of quantitative but also in terms of qualitative targets. And they have to be based on a sustainable footing in order to face the challenges of ageing. Today's proposals aim at strengthening the economic rationale underpinning budgetary policy decisions. At the same time they seek to ensure a more rigorous adherence to the budgetary commitments, which Member States set for themselves. The proposals do not create any new procedure since they are to be implemented on the basis of the stability and convergence programmes and using the instruments foreseen by the Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) provisions: assessment, regular surveillance, early warning, excessive deficit procedure, recommendations. In relation to this initiative the Commission has also adopted two Communications calling for the upgrading of EU and euro area economic and budgetary statistics (IP/02/1743). For more details see http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/publications/sgp_en.htm

[Background paper IP/02/1742]

"Spring day in Europe": Schools are getting ready to discuss the future of the European Union

Several hundred schools have already registered for the "Spring day in Europe" on 21 March 2003, when, on the initiative of certain members of the European Convention, all schools in the Member Sates and the candidate countries are invited to discuss the future of the Union. The initiative, which was supported by the Presidium of the Convention and the Council of Ministers of Education of the EU on 11 and 12 November, is intended to explain European integration issues to the younger generation and to make them aware of the part that Europe might play in their daily life, not only now but even more so in the future. For details see http://futurum.eun.org/.

[Background paper IP/02/1760]

Eurostat news releases

Flash estimate - November 2002: Euro-zone inflation estimated at 2.2%

Euro-zone annual inflation is expected to be 2.2% in November 2002, down from 2.3% in October 2002, according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat.

[Background paper STAT/02/137]

Enlargement news

Sketching out the endgame

With just days to go before the Copenhagen summit on 12-13 December, where the European Union aim is to close accession negotiations with most of the candidate countries, last week was dominated by the presentation of individual packages that - it was hoped - could represent a final deal.

The European Union Presidency and the European Commission spent last Tuesday in a series of meetings with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. Denmark's permanent representative to the EU, Poul Skyte Christophersen, and the Commission's director general for enlargement, Eneko Landaburu, spelled out improved terms for a settlement to each of them.

These packages are the result of intensive, informal discussions between the EU Presidency, the Commission and each candidate country following the Brussels European Council on 24-25 October. The Presidency said that with these proposals, "everything has now been presented, and nothing has been kept back for later".

These offers will ensure that each of the candidates will be financially better off after accession than before membership. They provide an extra €1 billion for budgetary compensation, to be shared out among the candidates on the basis of their respective gross national incomes. They include another €0.9 billion to help pay for accelerated preparations for the candidates' accession to the Schengen area - assisting with expenses such as for border control and justice and home affairs.

In an attempt to take into account the special wishes of each candidate country, the offers also contain upward adjustments of several important agricultural quotas, including the milk quotas, and additional facilities for the new member states to top up direct payments to their farmers. Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia would receive an additional 5% for rural development. For some new member states, the offers would extend the period during which land could only be purchased by nationals, and for Hungary and the Czech Republic they would grant extra seats in the European Parliament. The offers would also provide some €0.6 billion for decommissioning of ageing nuclear power plants.

At the same time, the total economic effect of the packages remains well within the decisions on the budget for enlargement taken at the European Council in Berlin in March 1999, and at the Brussels summit, and they are below the Commission proposal of January 2002.

The goal of the Presidency is to complete negotiations on this broad basis with the ten countries at meetings at foreign ministers level on December 9-10, so that the enlargement deal can be confirmed at Copenhagen, and so that the new EU member states can be welcomed into the EU on 1 May 2004.

The initial reactions of the candidate countries to the offers ranged from a cautious welcome - from many - to a demand - from some - for much more. But the Presidency has made clear that there is not much more that can be offered now. Even before the Presidency presented its proposals to the candidates, there had already been expressions of concern from some member state representatives that the offers were too generous.

Responding to candidate countries' continuing criticisms of the proposals, European Commission President Romano Prodi issued a public appeal to the governments of these ten candidate countries: "We are just a few days away from concluding the historic agreement for Europe. (…) The Danish Presidency and the Commission have made valiant efforts (…) to present a package which meets almost all the concerns of the candidate countries. I appeal to the leaders of the candidate countries to demonstrate the political realism necessary to solve these final difficulties in the same spirit of responsibility and friendship which inspires the Presidency and the Commission", he said.

Meanwhile, the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is preparing to consult with other EU leaders in the course of the roundtrip of EU capitals that the Council President traditionally makes immediately prior to a summit. Accompanied by Eneko Landaburu, he starts in Lisbon, Madrid and Vienna, goes on to Berlin and Rome the next day, then Helsinki and Stockholm on Wednesday 4th, followed by London, Dublin and Paris on Thursday 5th, and the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium on Friday 6th. As Greece will assume the EU Presidency at the turn of the year, Athens is the last stop on the trip, on Tuesday 10 December.

As he was preparing to depart, Rasmussen said: "At the concluding summit of the Danish EU Presidency in Copenhagen on 12 - 13 December, we shall complete the enlargement negotiations with up to ten countries. During the week ahead, the Danish Presidency will present a final negotiation package to each of the ten countries. In connection with my roundtrip, I will present an account of the content of the packages and discuss the course of events leading up to the Summit. It is my firm conviction that the packages constitute the best possible combination of concessions to the candidate countries and due respect for the decisions taken by the EU Heads of State or Government at previous meetings in Berlin in 1999 and in Brussels in October this year. The negotiations on the enlargement of the EU will have to be concluded on the basis of the Presidency negotiation packages."

He already insisted last week at a meeting with Polish prime minister Leszek Miller that "the time schedule for the completion of the negotiations must be kept, which means that negotiations with individual countries should be completed prior to the Copenhagen summit... and on the basis of the negotiation packages of the EU Presidency."

The Copenhagen summit will also have to make decisions on the next stages for the other EU candidates: new roadmaps for Bulgaria and Romania, and how to progress Turkey's accession bid.

Parliament presidents look forward to enlargement

The President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, hosted a meeting in Brussels last week with the Presidents of the Parliaments of the candidate countries, with the participation of European Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen, and Elmar Brok, the MEP who chairs the Parliament's committee on foreign affairs.

The Presidents concluded their meeting with a joint statement confirming that enlargement "is the principal political challenge currently facing the institutions of the EU, the member states and the candidate countries", and expressing the conviction that enlargement "will represent a real and symbolic contribution to world peace, security and prosperity at a time of great international tension."

They drew attention to the need for Parliaments to work together to ensure that the European integration process engages public opinion and that parliaments are effectively involved. The arrangements for observers from the acceding countries to attend European Parliament sessions once the Accession Treaty is signed were welcomed "as confirmation of the central role of Parliaments in relation to public opinion in the final, decisive stage of the enlargement process."

And the Presidents put in a bid for a fair deal at Copenhagen: "A successful conclusion of the accession negotiations must reflect a fair distribution of the rights and obligations incumbent on both current and future member states". They urged the EU member states and the candidate countries "to respect the principles of equality and solidarity during the final stages of the accession negotiations" - and to apply those principles "equally to present and future EU member states".

Closer links with the Czech Republic

The EU-Czech Republic joint parliamentary committee met in Brussels last week, with the participation, among others, of European Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen, and looked forward to a successful outcome for enlargement at the Copenhagen summit. But it warned that no one should reduce their reform efforts once negotiations are closed. It attached "a high priority" to combating corruption, and to improving the transparency of public spending, as well as to promoting good governance in all areas of public life. The meeting welcomed the European Commission's determination to monitor the progress up until and after accession in the areas where specific urgent issues still remain to be resolved, and it recalled that reforms in all areas have to be continued well after accession in order to fulfil the commitments made during the accession negotiations. This would mean, however, that the Commission and the EU member states would have to continue to support the adaptation process with all the financial and logistical means available, the JPC concluded.

And a new EU-Czech body - the joint consultative committee, bringing together representatives of the European Economic and Social Committee and their Czech counterparts - has just held its first meeting, too. Its establishment is another acknowledgement at senior political level of the role of organised civil society, and its role is to prepare the ground for the enlargement of the EU by promoting dialogue between Czech and EU civil society organisations. The JCC will enable the Czech representatives to become acquainted with the consultation processes within the EU, and will also advocate and support the active involvement of economic and social actors in the implementation and practice of the EU legislation in the Czech Republic. Priority fields for discussion in 2003 will be cross-border co-operation, economic and social consequences of EU accession, implementation of structural funds, agriculture, simplification of EU single market legislation, and the role of organised civil society in the information strategy on EU membership.

On more technical matters, the European Commission last week proposed a new agreement to ease trade with the Czech Republic. A draft modification to the Europe Agreement would liberalise trade worth some €120 million a year on sensitive items such as molasses, many fruit and vegetables, honey and fruit juices. "The Czech Republic has made room for import of quality agricultural products from the European Union, such as tropical fruits, fruit juices, sheep meat and yoghurts," according to Ramiro Cibrián, head of the European Commission delegation in Prague. At the same time there will be improved concessions and new duty-free tariff quotas on cereals (with "substantial tariff quotas on wheat, maize and barley") and in the dairy sectors, and the EU will be granted new duty-free access to the Czech market for its exports of rice and olive oil. The agreement - which still needs to be finalised by ministers - includes a commitment to remove export subsidies for the sectors concerned. It could come into force from 1 January 2003.

Another aspect of boosting the success of enlargement at grass-roots level came under the spotlight at a seminar at the Czech Mission to the EU in Brussels. The challenges and expectations for smaller Czech firms facing EU enlargement was examined by diplomats, ministers and senior European Commission officials, as well as by Czech and European businessmen.

And work is moving forward on another dimension of Czech relations with the wider Europe. Representatives of the Czech Republic met their counterparts from the European Free Trade Association in Prague on 25 November to discuss EFTA-Czech Republic trade relations. This was the seventh meeting of the Joint EFTA-Czech Committee since the entry into force of the countries' Free Trade Agreement on 1 July 1992 - and high on the agenda were Czech accession negotiations with the EU: the EFTA side "expressed its satisfaction that the Czech Republic's accession to the EU implied a new and closer relationship with the EFTA states", particularly in respect of the European Economic Area, which the new EU member states are obliged to join too. The EFTA countries at the meeting underlined the importance of the Czech Republic's simultaneous accession to the EU and to the EEA - and said they were concerned that unless remedial action is taken, the Czech Republic's accession to the EU would raise tariff barriers on fish products from EFTA.

Candidates contribute to European Court of Auditors work

The European Court of Auditors hosted a meeting of the Presidents of the supreme audit institutions of the European Union and the candidate countries in Luxembourg last week. For the first time, the Presidents of the national supreme audit institutions of the thirteen candidate countries were invited to join the official meeting of their EU counterparts, and to discuss protection of public funds and other matters of common interest together. Co-operation was high on the agenda, and the candidate countries also made concrete contributions to the exchanges. The State Audit Office of Hungary presented a report from a joint working group on audit activities, and the Supreme Chamber of Control of Poland and the National Audit Office of Malta presented their report on relations between national parliaments and supreme audit institutions. Since 1997, the European Court of Auditors has intensified its co-operation with the enlargement countries, both formally and at the practical level, in order to allow regular exchanges of information, harmonise audit methodology and enhance professional training. SIGMA (an OECD- based organisation) and the supreme audit institutions from the EU member states also take part in these activities, with the aim of improving the quality of financial management in the candidate countries. National supreme audit institutions from EU member states also take part in EU-funded "twinning" projects with candidate countries, to help develop organisation and methodology and to allow effective audits of EU funds after accession.