The Week in Europe - 16-23/04/03

EU news in brief

The Accession Treaty is signed

The Treaty of Accession was signed at a ceremony on April 16 in Athens at the Stoa of Attalos, the ancient Agora of Athens, at the foot of the Acropolis.

The signature of the Treaty of Accession and of the Final Act by the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, paves the way for their membership of the Union on 1 May 2004.

The 4,900 pages of the Treaty and the Act of Accession, in each of the 21 languages, set out the terms, conditions and transitional arrangements for the new member states, as well as making the numerous necessary administrative changes to hundreds of EU rules - such as incorporating the addresses of regulatory agencies in the new member states, or adding their languages, or including their territories.

As of 17 April, the acceding states are participating as active observers in the work of the Council and its preparatory bodies. The first Council session where they are expected to participate in this capacity will take place on May 6, at the Education, Youth and Culture Council.

Each of the heads of state and government of the member states and of the acceding states also delivered a brief address. And the heads of state and government from the three candidate countries - Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey - were also present at the ceremony.

In his role as President of the European Council, Greek prime minister Costas Simitis said the ceremony was "overcoming the division of European countries into two opposing camps, eastern and western Europe", and that "almost all the countries of Europe are now participating in the European Union". Co-operation and solidarity within the EU had, he said, "created a political and economic area with an important role in developments in the global community, an area which attracts and inspires, an area that is respected and heeded". And he urged the EU as a whole "not to settle for just managing our achievements to date, but to advance the process of unification, to give the configuration we have created a more complete form and new content." Looking ahead, he said: "It is up to us whether this continuation will be a history of peace, creation, co-operation and solidarity."

The European conference is revitalised by enlargement

The European Conference, a six-year old EU forum that has often looked on the point of expiry, took on a new life when it met in Athens on April 17. Emboldened by the Accession Treaty signature the day before, heads of state and government from of forty countries convened to reaffirm their common belief in European values "at this moment of historic significance".

"The current enlargement of the European Union is a testimony to the spirit that now prevails on our continent and brings forward the reality of political and economic interdependence between the Union and its neighbours, both to the South and East", they said.

A declaration issued by the Conference recognised "that the countries and peoples of Europe have come a long way towards forging a community of values based on democracy, the rule of law and the respect for fundamental rights and freedoms". This move towards common values "has enabled us to create bonds of trust between countries and peoples and to gradually establish and expand prosperity and security".

They exchanged views on "an inclusive vision for the years to come", and agreed that their "shared neighbourhood" should benefit from the European Union's enlargement policy - although the declaration makes clear that enlargement "remains a distinct process".

The European political leaders confirmed their determination "not to tolerate any new dividing lines, to agree to promote policies of political rapprochement and gradual integration in social and economic structures between the enlarged European Union and its neighbours, and to accelerate the political, economic and cultural dynamism on the European continent and beyond."

Among the priorities they all subscribed to were:

· respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law;

· common security and the fight against organised and transnational crime, trafficking in human beings, terrorism, and communicable diseases;

· mutual trade and investment, market opening and gradual integration in economic structures and the global trading system;

· sustainable development;

· transport, energy and telecommunications networks;

· cultural co-operation;

· streamlining cross-border instruments;

The European Conference was attended by the fifteen member states, the ten acceding states, the three candidate countries and the neighbour countries of the enlarged Union (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Norway, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, and Ukraine).

"Wider Europe" under review by EU ministers

Last week's External Relations Council in Luxembourg included a policy debate on "wider Europe" - the discussion that enlargement has triggered about the EU's relations with its eastern and southern neighbours.

The European Commission came up with a "Wider Europe" initiative in March, based on the conviction that the EU's impeding enlargement next year presents a unique opportunity to strengthen co-operation and interdependence with those countries that will soon find themselves at the Union's frontiers.

The exchanges between EU foreign affairs ministers revealed a widespread desire to deal with individual eastern and Mediterranean neighbours on an individual basis, at the same time as promoting relations between them and strengthening co-operation and interdependence. Minister after minister insisted on the need for a differentiated approach, and for clear measurements of progress towards established objectives.

Firm conclusions were not reached: further discussion will be held at diplomatic level before ministers return to the subject.

Top-level attention to the future of Europe

The Informal European Council - the heads of state and government of the EU15 - met on the morning of April 16 with the President of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, to discuss the Convention on the Future of Europe. Among the main issues discussed were assuring continuity in the Presidency of the European Council; the size and the composition of the European Commission after the enlargement to 27 members; the nomination and powers of the President of the Commission and a possible "EU Foreign Affairs Minister"; and the role of a possible new structure (such as a Conference or Congress) composed of representatives of national parliaments and of the European Parliament. The EU leaders agreed the Convention's work should be completed quickly, so that a final draft of the Convention's deliberations can be examined at the Thessaloniki European Council on June 20. The final document will provide a starting point for discussions in the upcoming Inter-Governmental Conference, which will take the ultimate decisions on a new EU Treaty.

New management, new finance mechanisms for Trans-European Transport Networks

Innovative financial instruments and management systems necessary to realise large scale infrastructure projects on the one hand and a proposal for a directive on electronic charging systems on the other were presented by the Commission in a Communication to the Parliament and Council. Together these will contribute to more favourable conditions for a more efficient use of the trans-European transport networks and their completion. The Commission's Vice-President responsible for transport and energy, Loyola de Palacio, welcomed the proposals saying: "The financial and structural problems encountered in putting into place the extensive and expensive infrastructure essential to hold our continent together will not be solved overnight but these proposals today lay the foundations on which we can together build the transport future for an enlarged Union". For more information, see also MEMO available at the website:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/themes/network/english/ten-t-en.html

[Background paper IP/03/560]

Commission proposes EU Water Fund worth EUR 1 billion

The European Commission proposed the establishment of a European Union Water Fund, with a budget of €1 billion, to help give people in the 77 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) signatory countries to the Cotonou Agreement access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Today's Communication builds on the EU Water Initiative, launched during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in September 2002. The WSSD confirmed the target, set by the Millennium Development Goals, of halving, by 2015, the number of people across the world without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The fund is intended to be a catalyst - promoting initiatives, providing information, being a clearing-house, building research and management capacity in ACP countries - as well as an instrument which can provide the missing link in financing sustainable projects and activities. The Commission will now discuss this proposal with the EU Member States and the ACP partners, and give due consideration to the necessary steps to allow the financing to be mobilised from the European Development Fund to set up the Fund.

[Background paper IP/03/556]

Eurostat news releases

March 2003 : Euro-zone annual inflation stable at 2.4% ; EU15 stable at 2.3%

Euro-zone annual inflation was 2.4% in March 2003, the same as in February, Eurostat reports today. A year earlier the rate was 2.5%. EU15 annual inflation was 2.3% in March 2003, the same as in February. A year earlier the rate was 2.3%. EEA annual inflation was 2.3% in March 2003. In March, the highest annual rates were recorded in Ireland (4.9%), Greece (3.9%) and Portugal (3.8%) ; the lowest rates were observed in Germany (1.2%), United Kingdom (1.6%) and Belgium (1.7%).

[Background paper STAT/03/45]

Enlargement news

The names that go down in history

The Accession Treaty signing ceremony has engraved the names of the signatories on the history of the European Union. The Treaty was signed by chosen representatives of each member state and acceding state, in the following order: for Belgium, the signatories were prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and Louis Michel, deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs; for the Czech Republic by the President, Vŕclav Klaus, and by prime minister Vladimir Špidla and foreign affairs minister Cyril Svoboda; for Denmark by prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and foreign affairs minister Per Stig Mřller; for Germany by the Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and deputy chancellor and foreign affairs minister Joseph Fischer; for Estonia by the President, Arnold Rüütel, and foreign affairs minister Kristiina Ojuland; for Greece by prime minister Konstantinos Simitis, foreign affairs minister Giorgos Papandreou, and alternate foreign affairs minister Tassos Giannitsis; for the United Kingdom, by prime minister Tony Blair and foreign affairs minister Jack Straw; for Spain by prime minister José Maria Aznar Lópe and foreign affairs minister Ana Palacio Vallelersundi; for France by prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, foreign affairs minister Dominique Galouzeau De Villepin, and Noëlle Lenoir, European affairs minister; for Ireland by prime minister Bertie Ahern and foreign affairs minister Brian Cowen; for Italy by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and foreign affairs minister Franco Frattini; for Cyprus by the President, Tassos Papadopoulos, and foreign affairs minister George Iacovou; for Latvia by the President, Vaira Vike -Freiberga, prime minister Einars Repše, foreign affairs minister Sandra Kalniete, and Andris Kesteris, negotiator; for Lithuania by prime minister Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas and foreign affairs minister Antanas Valionis; for Luxembourg by prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and foreign affairs minister Lydie Polfer; for Hungary by prime minister Péter Medgyessy, foreign affairs minister László Kovács, and Endre Juhász, the negotiator; for Malta by prime minister Edward Fenech Adami, foreign affairs minister Joe Borg, and negotiator Richard Cachia Caruana; for the Netherlands by prime minister Jan Pieter Balkenende and foreign affairs minister Jakob Gijsbert de Hoop Scheffer; for Austria by the Chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, and foreign affairs minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner; for Poland by prime minister Leszek Miller, foreign affairs minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, and secretary of state Danuta Hübner; for Portugal by prime minister José Manuel Durăo Barroso and foreign affairs minister António Martins Da Cruz; for Slovenia by the President, Janez Drnovšek, and by prime minister Anton Rop and foreign affairs minister Dimitrij Rupel; for Slovakia, by the President, Rudolf Schuster, and by prime minister Mikuláš Dzurinda, foreign affairs minister Eduard Kukan, and negotiator Ján Figel; by Finland by prime minister Paavo Lipponen and foreign affairs minister Jari Vilén; and for Sweden by prime minister Göran Persson and foreign affairs minister Anna Lindh.

Drug use increasing in candidate countries

Candidate countries have become a clear target for drug consumption, according to the EU drugs agency, the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. In most candidate countries, "recreational drug use and experimentation are increasingly becoming an integral part of youth culture", said the Agency last week. "There has been an increase in experimental drug use in the general population in all candidate countries of central and eastern Europe in the past 10 years", and the trend is particularly visible in schools, with a doubling between 1995 and 1999 in the number of pupils aged 15 to 16 who have tried any illicit drug at least. Whereas, in the EU, the population of problem drug users is largely stable and ageing, in the majority of candidate countries the phenomenon is newer and problem drug users are generally younger. The findings give rise to considerable concern about the potential for future problems, according to EMCDDA. The agency's chairman, Marcel Reimen, urges continuing support by the EU to enable candidate countries to "align their actions in the drugs field with those of the EU and its current member states".

It is essential for candidate countries to strengthen their drug co-ordination and information mechanisms, he says. "While most of the candidate countries now have a legal and institutional framework in place for national drug strategies, the limited funding available is often more oriented towards law enforcement", according to Georges Estievenart, EMCDDA executive director.

(Drugs in focus, Issue No 8 (March-April 2003): 'EU enlargement and drugs - Challenges and perspectives' http://www.emcdda.eu.int/infopoint/publications/focus.shtml#8 )

Kaliningrad - Adoption of the of the regulations on the facilitated transit document and facilitated rail transit document

The General Affairs and External Relations Council on April 14-15 adopted a Regulation which establishes the specific Facilitated Transit Document and the Facilitated Rail Transit Document and a Regulation on the uniform format of these documents. In its own words, the Council explained that "The Regulation is aimed, in the light of the accession to the Union of new member states, at taking into account specific situations which may occur as a result of enlargement, and sets out the relevant legislation to avoid problems related to the crossing of the EU's external border. It addresses, in particular, situations where third country nationals must necessarily cross the territory of one or several member states in order to travel between two parts of their own country which are not geographically contiguous." While being of a general nature, the new transit scheme ha been devised in line with the EU-Russia Joint Statement of 11 November 2002 with a view to easing Russian citizens between Kaliningrad and the rest of Russia. In line with the Conclusions of the General Affairs and External Relations Council of 10 December 2002, the new regulations have been prepared and adopted in close consultation with Lithuania and before the signature of the Accession Treaty so that the new acquis can be referred to in the "Kaliningrad Protocol" attached to the Accession Treaty.

Romania focuses on competition and judicial reform

Romania's executive committee for European integration met last week under prime minister Adrian Nastase to review the efforts that still need to be made for Romania to join the European Union. Romania's bid to win the status from the EU of functioning market economy was at the top of the agenda, and despite recent progress (in preparing the privatisation of the energy distribution sector, in adopting new rules for granting state aid, and in the reform of the tax system), Nastase himself underlined that further changes would have to be made to ensure respect of EU competition rules, particularly in respect of state aid, debt deferral, and other facilities. He also asked the ministry of justice to urgently propose amendments to the bankruptcy law. And he emphasised the importance of further judicial reform, to eliminate the risk of criticisms about lack of impartiality, transparency, credibility or efficiency when the European Commission publishes its regular report this autumn.

Cyprus regional representatives back decentralisation call

The importance of local and regional self-government is underlined in a recommendation from last week's meeting in Brussels of the joint consultative committee between Cyprus and the EU's Committee of the Regions. The committee called for structural dialogue between the representatives of local authorities in Cyprus and the central government. "The continuation of the decentralisation process, which is already underway in the EU and Cyprus, is welcome", it said. And it stressed "the vital role played by European regional policy for the successful integration of Cyprus in the EU". The committee will hold its next meeting in Cyprus, on October 30-31, and focus on how EU financial assistance can support the country's economic development, so as to increase the chances of peace and prosperity on a united island.

EEA enlargement negotiations "in last phase"

Negotiations on enlargement of the European Economic Area, which stalled in early April, are "currently in their last phase", according to the European Free Trade Association. It said in its annual report, issued last week, that "The enlargement of the EU will open up a new chapter in EEA co-operation. In December 2002, the countries acceding to the EU applied to become parties to the EEA Agreement. The negotiations started on 9 January 2003 and are currently in their last phase. The EEA EFTA States have stressed their view that enlargement of the EEA should not lead to the erection of new barriers in the trade regime of fish and seafood products between the EEA EFTA States and the enlarged EU. EEA enlargement negotiations are now being conducted with the aim of concluding them in Spring 2003 to ensure the parallel ratification and entry into force of both the EU Accession Treaty and the EEA enlargement instrument by May 2004." EFTA says that as a result of enlargement, overall trade relations between the EEA EFTA States and the acceding countries will be strengthened. The same applies to trade relations between the new EU members and Switzerland. The ten acceding states will become parties to the seven sectoral bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU, which entered into force on 1 June 2002.

And when the EEA Council - the body that supervises EU links with Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein - met in Luxembourg last week, with foreign affairs ministers and European Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen, it welcomed the successful finalisation of the EU enlargement negotiations, and said the EEA enlargement negotiations "are expected to be concluded as soon as possible in order to reach the common objective of simultaneous accession of new members to the EU and to the EEA, in order to secure the homogeneity and the good functioning of the European Economic Area."