The Week in Europe 29/01-4/02/03

19.02.2003 | Euroskop

The Week in Europe 29/01-4/02/03

EU news in brief

Commission Reform: 87 of 98 measures have been approved and implementation shows first benefits of Reform

The European Commission adopted a report showing that almost all of the changes necessary to fulfil the commitments made in the March 2000 Reform Strategy White Paper have been achieved in less than 3 years. Major modernising action has been undertaken in financial management and control, in resource planning and programming, and in many aspects of staff policy. The Reform focus this year and to the end of this Commission will therefore be on finalising the negotiations in Council and Parliament on the modernisation of the Staff Regulations; on ensuring full and effective implementation of all changes in systems, structures, management and work practices; and on adapting to new challenges, particularly those stemming from Enlargement of the Union.

[Background paper IP/03/133]

Commission adopts Second Progress Report on economic and social cohesion

Michel Barnier, the Commissioner responsible for regional policy, presented an update on the state of Europe's regions in the Second Progress Report on economic and social cohesion. The report also provides a summary of the 'great debate' on the future of European regional policy for the period beginning in 2007 in the context of an enlarged European Union. In this way, it sets an agenda for the Commission's proposals, which will be published before the end of 2003 for a new-look regional policy capable of responding to the needs arising not only in the new Member States but also in the Fifteen. More information about the future debate on cohesion policy can be found at this site:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/debate/forum_en.htm

[Background paper IP/03/145]

Intellectual property: Commission proposes Directive to bolster the fight against piracy and counterfeiting

The European Commission has presented a proposal for a Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The objectives of the proposal are to harmonise national laws on the means of enforcing intellectual property rights and to establish a general framework for the exchange of information between the responsible national authorities. The proposed Directive would ensure a level playing field for right holders in the EU, reinforce measures against offenders and thus act as a deterrent to those engaged in counterfeiting and piracy. The proposal will now go forward to the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers for adoption under the so-called 'co-decision' procedure. The proposal complements the recent proposal for a Regulation to facilitate seizures by customs of counterfeit goods from outside the EU (see IP/03/75).

[Background paper IP/03/144]

Data protection: Microsoft agrees to change its .NET Passport system after discussions with EU watchdog

The European Union's Working Party on data protection ("Article 29 Working Party") agreed on 29th January a working document on on-line authentication services. As well as some general material and some guidelines to be applied by all present or future on-line authentication systems, the document includes two case studies on the most prominent systems at present: the Microsoft .NET Passport system and the Liberty Alliance Project. Following discussions with the Working Party, Microsoft has agreed to implement a comprehensive package of data protection measures, which will mean making substantial changes to the existing .NET Passport system. The purpose of online authentication systems is to allow users who have registered and provided some form of identification, often including an e-mail address, and verification, often a password, to navigate through participating sites without having to introduce a different password for each one. For more information please consult the group's own press release at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/dataprot/wpdocs/index.htm

[Background paper IP/03/151]

The treaty of Nice enters into force: an essential building block to enlarge the European Union

On 1 February 2003, the Treaty of Nice enters into force. The Treaty makes adaptations to the European institutions, which are necessary for enlargement. The Treaty will also facilitate decision-making in the Council of Ministers by changing the decision rule from unanimity to qualified majority in a number of policy fields. It foresees a major reform of the Union's judicial system in order to tackle the case overload in the Court of Justice. Finally, it improves the procedure to detect and address a serious breach of fundamental rights by a Member State. For more information, see also MEMO/03/23 of 31 January 2003.

[Background paper IP/03/160]

Commission proposes new rules for financing EU consumer policy

The European Commission adopted a legislative proposal to update the EU's rules on the financing of its consumer policy activities. The current framework for financing consumer policy actions European Parliament and Council Decision 283/1999/EC needs to be modified to bring it into line with the priorities of the Consumer Policy Strategy for 2002-2006 (see IP/02/657) and the financial reforms being brought in by the Commission (see IP/02/929). The Commission is proposing to spend €18 million a year on consumer policy actions. These will include actions for policy development and monitoring of implementation, such as the RAPEX rapid alert system on product safety, actions to be jointly financed by the Commission and Member States, such as the European Consumer Centres Network and the consumer dispute settlement network EEJ-Net, operational grants for activities of European consumer organisations and project grants. For more information on all these activities see:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/index_en.html. A report adopted by the Commission at the same time as its proposal for a new Decision gives an overview and an evaluation of the Commission's consumer policy actions in the period 1999-2001.

eLearning: Commission launches website for information and exchange

"Learntec 2003", the international trade fair in Karlsruhe opened today by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Education and Culture, provides an opportunity for the European Commission to launch its website on eLearning:

http://www.elearningeuropa.info/ This portal will provide not only information on Community initiatives in this field, such as the eLearning programme (2004-2006) which is currently being adopted (cf. IP/02/1932 of 19/12/2002), but also links with national initiatives, both public and private, and contributions from experts on subjects ranging from "eLiteracy" to the situation in the candidate countries.

[Background paper IP/03/168]

Eurostat news releases

December 2002 Euro-zone unemployment stable at 8.5%; EU15 up to 7.8%

Euro-zone seasonally-adjusted unemployment stood at 8.5% in December 2002, Eurostat reports. It was 8.1% in December 2001. The EU15 unemployment rate was 7.8% in December 2002, compared to 7.7% in November3. It was 7.4% in December 2001. In December 2002, lowest rates were registered in Luxembourg (2.7%), the Netherlands (2.9% in November), Austria (4.2%), Ireland (4.4%), and Denmark (4.7%). Spain's 12.0% remained the EU's highest rate. Among the twelve Member States for which data are available for the most recent two months, eleven recorded an increase in their unemployment rate in the last twelve months. Portugal (4.2% to 5.8%), Luxembourg (2.1% to 2.7%), the Netherlands (2.4% in November 2001 to 2.9% in November 2002), and Spain (10.7% to 12.0%) recorded the most important relative increases. Finland's rate decreased from 9.2% to 9.0%. In December 2002 compared to December 2001, the unemployment rate for males in the euro-zone grew from 6.9% to 7.4%, and the female unemployment rate rose from 9.6% to 9.9%. In the EU15 the unemployment rate for males grew from 6.6% in December 2001 to 7.0% in December 2002. Over the same period the female rate increased from 8.5% to 8.8%. In December 2002, the unemployment rate for under-25s was 16.3% in the euro-zone and 15.1% in the EU15, compared to 15.8% and 14.7% respectively in December 2001. The rate ranged from 5.5% in the Netherlands (in November 2002) to 22.2% in Spain.

[Background paper STAT/03/13]

Flash estimate - January 2003 Euro-zone inflation estimated at 2.1%

Euro-zone annual inflation is expected to be 2.1% in January 2003 according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat. It was 2.3% in December 2002.

[Background paper STAT/03/14]

Enlargement news

Eu foreign affairs ministers mark further enlargement steps

The first meeting of the European Union General Affairs Council under the Greek Presidency - in Brussels on 28 January endorsed the Presidency's plans for enlargement over the coming six months. In formal terms, the programme includes the completion of the drafting of the Accession Treaty (based on the negotiations finalised at the Copenhagen summit last December), the formal opinion of the Commission on it (19th February), the assent of the European Parliament to it (9th April), its adoption by the Council, and its signature by the heads of state and government of the member states and of the acceding states on 16th April in Athens.

In practical terms, the Presidency is also aiming to ease the integration of the new member states into EU ways of working: from 16 April, the new member states will be entitled to take part in all EU meetings as active observers. And at the same time, the Union will be supervising the monitoring of how far and fast the candidate countries are living up to the commitments they made in the negotiations.

Encouraging and assisting Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey in their continued efforts towards accession also feature prominently in the programme. The Presidency also plans to continue work on the "Wider Europe" - which, it stressed, includes the strengthening of relations with Russia as well as the enhancement of relations with Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus within the "New Neighbours Initiative", and with the southern Mediterranean countries.

European Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen reported during the meeting on the finalisation of the text of the Accession Treaty, and won expressions of satisfaction from the Council on the progress achieved - as well as backing for his insistence on keeping to the timetable and sticking to the results of the accession negotiations, "which are fully reflected in the draft Treaty texts", the Presidency emphasised. The necessary clarification process in finalising the text does not, in other words, offer any scope for re-negotiation, the EU made very clear.

Another outstanding question about the mechanics of the upcoming enlargement - the appointment of new member states' Commissioners - was resolved, too. After Presidency consultations with the European Parliament (which has the right to stage hearings of new Commissioners before they are appointed), agreement has been reached.

The ten new members of the Commission will be formally appointed on 1st May 2004, the date of the next enlargement and of the entry into force of the Accession Treaty - but the Council will give a list of nominees to the European Parliament by 1st March 2004, to allow for the customary parliamentary hearings to take place. And since the Commission, which the new member states will be joining will be in office for only seven months after entry into force of the Accession Treaty (it has already been agreed that the term of the new Commission will start two months earlier than scheduled, on 1 November 2004), the Council has agreed to facilitate matters by ensuring that the new President of that Commission be nominated in time for the European Parliament to give its approval in July 2004. In the same spirit, the Council will inform the Parliament of the nominees for the other Members of the Commission before the end of August 2004.

New member states into Shengen - but not yet

Some of the complexities of integrating the new member states into the Schengen area - the EU's area of freedom, security and justice - were spelled out by European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino in Brussels last week.

The Schengen acquis has to be accepted in full by all EU candidates, without derogation or exception - and this the ten states acceding next year have done in principle, and are now implementing in practice.

However, accession to the EU does not mean that new member states are automatically included in the Schengen area of free movement. After they join the EU, a special Schengen evaluation process in each of them will have to verify the ability to meet Schengen requirements.

These requirements cover the security-related mechanisms designed to compensate for the elimination of internal border controls for people moving around in the Schengen area: visa policy, harmonised external border control, rules on the free movement inside the Schengen territories, asylum policy, police and judicial co-operation, provisions on extradition, drugs, firearms and ammunition. All this is backed up by the Schengen Information System, which contains data on persons or objects refused entry in the territory of the Schengen member states.

Each new member state will be admitted to Schengen only after satisfying all these requirements, and after a special decision of the EU Council of Ministers, which is needed for lifting of internal border controls.

In any case, said Vitorino, "Full implementation of the Schengen provisions immediately upon accession is not possible for technical and operational reasons". A functioning Schengen Information System is a key precondition, and the new version to technically link the new member states will not be operational until, the end of 2005. So "it is not possible to take any decision concerning the lifting of internal border controls before that time". "In addition", said the Commissioner, "the Schengen evaluation process itself will take some time".

However, even if the new member states cannot immediately accede fully to Schengen, they will be required, as soon as they join the EU, to apply much of the Schengen acquis - for instance mutual co-operation in criminal matters and most of the provisions on police co-operation. It means, in effect, that they will have to meet all the provisions which are not directly linked to the lifting of internal border controls. "This is to ensure that new member states can participate as soon as possible in the enhanced co-operation of the Schengen acquis", explained the Commissioner.

Looking further ahead, Vitorino also signalled his desire to see Schengen function better in an enlarged EU. At present, most decisions needed for the creation of the area of freedom, security and justice are taken unanimously by the Council, after consulting the European Parliament. "This unanimity requirement has lead to significant delays in decision-making", said the Commissioner, accusing individual member states of using their power "to postpone and block the adoption of measures, forcing last minute compromises and derogations to the detriment of the coherence and ambition of the measures concerned" - "even in cases where the political will to act has been clear at the highest levels". In the context of an enlarged Union, such a situation is "untenable", in Vitorino's view. "In the interest of efficiency, it is therefore essential to make a substantive move in favour of a greater use of qualified majority voting in this area", he insisted.

After the current enlargement - the Western Balkans

The Western Balkans was the subject of much debate last week as minds turned to the future of the region after this current enlargement.

The Copenhagen decisions on enlargement have raised the spectre of marginalisation and "enlargement fatigue" in the Balkans, and the EU must send a strong message confirming that the European vocation of the region is real, warned Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, addressing the European Parliament last week. "The European perspective remains our strongest tool to further consolidate stability and encourage sustainable and EU compatible reform through the Stabilisation and Association Process", he said. But he too acknowledged, like the EU Presidency at the General Affairs Council on January 28, that "eventual membership will require hard work and genuine commitment to reforms by the countries of the region. This is the double message we need to send during the coming months".

The General Affairs Council meeting on January 28 also focussed on the "European perspective of the countries in the Western Balkans". A public debate among ministers was directed partly towards the people who live in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, to inform them about the priorities and commitments of the European Union. Giorgos Papandreou, Greek foreign affairs minister and current President of the EU Council of Ministers, stressed that the Union's relations with the Western Balkan region would constitute a major priority under the Greek Presidency, and that the Presidency was keen to "capitalise on the positive results achieved so far in the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Process" that provides the current legal framework for EU links with the countries of the region.

The aim was to ensure continuation of work on consolidating democratic institutions and the rule of law, protecting minorities, promoting economic reconstruction and development, and fostering regional co-operation. Papandreou expected that "a new impetus to the further rapprochement of these countries to the European Union" would be given by the summit scheduled for Thessaloniki on 21 June between the EU and the countries of the Western Balkans, the second such meeting within the so-called Zagreb Process, launched in Zagreb in November 2000.

Malta will be first to hold an EU accession referendum

Maltese Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami has now set a date for his country's referendum on EU accession - and, in line with earlier speculation, it will be on March 8. So Malta will now be the first of the candidate countries to hold its popular vote. But the referendum outcome will not be legally binding on the government - an important factor, since the population is finely balanced between pro- and anti-EU sentiment. The principal opposition group, the Maltese Labour Party, is openly against EU membership, and has been arguing that there should be a general election before any referendum. The current government, which is strongly pro-membership, is entitled to remain in office until January 2004 before calling elections.

Less Hungarian support for accession, but more in the Czech Republic and Poland

More than 70% of the citizens of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic that say they would participate in a referendum on EU accession would vote "yes", according to a new poll from CEORG, the central European polling organisation. The support ranges from 55% in the Czech Republic, through 58% in Hungary, to 62.5% in Poland. But there are still nearly 20% of respondents among the overall population who do not know whether to vote for or against EU accession. Support for accession has grown steadily in the Czech Republic, and has started to rise again in Poland, says CEORG, after a sharp dip last year. But in Hungary it has decreased from 72.1% in May 2002. CEORG has also researched how the EU accession negotiations fulfilled the expectations of the respondents. In the Czech Republic, 37.4% of respondents think the outcome of the negotiations is worse than expected, and only 6.1% that it was better than expected. In Hungary, 16.8% sees the outcome as worse than expected, while 11.3% thinks it is better than expected. But in Poland, 32% respondents think the result were as expected, and 20.4% think they were even better than expected - with 17.5% considering the outcome worse than expected. See :

http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/opinion/

Czech FDI rose sharply in 2002

The Czech National Bank says that the Czech Republic attracted more than $7 billion of foreign direct investment for the first three quarters of 2002 - a record. And Martin Jahn, CEO of CzechInvest, the government's agency for attracting foreign direct investment, says the result is even better than it looks, because the investment is shifting to increasingly higher quality operations. Jahn cites examples of technology centres and strategic services being set up by companies such as Honeywell, Matsushita, Logica and Rieter. During 2003 CzechInvest is particularly targeting investments in microelectronics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and aiming to widen the range in subsequent years to electronics, electrical engineering, aerospace, and medical technology. At present, the automotive sector accounts for the largest share of Czech FDI. To boost Czech attractions, the government has been providing training to local suppliers - with EU support - in management of quality, finance, and human and material resources. "The results of the pilot project which ended in 2002 showed that companies which made use of this assistance are much better accepted by multinational corporations as suppliers", said Jahn.