The Week in Europe 08-14/04/02

19.04.2002 | Euroskop

EU news in brief

"Intelligent Energy for Europe": the Commission proposes a new energy action programme

The Commission is proposing a new multiannual programme for actions in the field of energy, "Intelligent Energy for Europe" (2003-2006), to follow on from the current energy framework programme, due to end on 31 December 2002. With a budget of €215 million, "Intelligent Energy for Europe" implements the strategy outlined in the Green Paper on security of energy supply, founded on renewable energy sources and energy saving. For more information on the Green Paper, go to the following address:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy_transport/en/lpi_lv_en1.html.

[Background paper IP/02/524]

The European Commission proposes to negotiate with Switzerland in four new areas

The European Commission has decided to propose to the Council the start of negotiations with Switzerland in four new areas. The areas for which recommendations will be made are: implementation of the Schengen agreement; criteria and mechanisms for determining which state is responsible for considering asylum applications; the establishment of a free trade agreement on services; and a bilateral agreement in the audiovisual field.

For further information see:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/switzerland/intro/index.htm

[Background paper IP/02/531]

100 days of the euro: a daily reality for 305 million Europeans

According to the latest eurobarometer published by the European Commission the public in the euro area confirms its widespread positive feelings about the new currency. 84% of euro area citizens feel that the euro changeover was smooth and successful in general, while even more (87%) declare that the operation went smoothly for them personally. The results confirm the general feeling that the logistical and technical operations rose to this historical challenge. 72% of euro area citizens declare that they were well prepared on the 1st of January €-day, while 88% declare that they were well informed. Perhaps more importantly, the euro changeover proved an all inclusive event; all actors participated in providing information and helping fellow citizens during the first days: the media, the family, banks, national and local authorities. This was an operation led by the enthusiasm of Europeans. In a question asked for the first time, 81% of the euro area citizens agree that the euro changeover is a major event in the history of Europe. All this enthusiasm helps citizens deal with some remaining practical difficulties. The majority still use the national currency units as a reference point, while 17% of citizens "think in euro" in all their daily transactions. This however did not have an impact on citizens' buying behaviour, as more than two thirds have not changed their buying habits since the introduction. Close to 50% of citizens however prefer that retailers, banks, etc. continue with the double display of prices as the Commission has recommended. Regarding prices, three quarter of citizens still feel that prices were rounded up after the 1 January. While it is a fact that prices of certain goods, for which citizens pay daily, have risen in January 2002, some of them due to rounding up (restaurants, coffee shops), some for other reasons (vegetables due to bad weather), the overall inflationary effect of the euro changeover has been estimated at only 0.16% by Eurostat (STAT 23/2002). People feel still more at ease with the new euro banknotes than with the euro coins. The latest eurobarometer survey was carried out in the period 11-19 March 2002. The full survey is available on the web on:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/index_en.htm

Indicator-based forecast of euro area GDP for 1st and 2nd quarter of 2002

The indicator-based model for quarterly GDP growth for the euro area, developed by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission, forecasts for the first quarter of 2002 a range of 0.2% to 0.5% for the percentage change of GDP vis-ŕ-vis the previous quarter (compared to the estimated ranges published on 12 March 2002, there has been an upward revision of 0.1%). This follows a -0.2% contraction of the euro area GDP in the fourth quarter 2001 according to Eurostat's second estimate published on 11 April. For the second quarter of 2002, quarter on quarter growth is forecast to be in the range of 0.5% to 0.8 %. These forecasts confirm that a recovery is taking hold. A moderate upturn in the retail indicator and a stronger recovery in the US (as captured by the Purchasing Managers' Index for the manufacturing sector) account for the small upward shift compared to the last March forecast. Full document is available at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/indicators/euroareagdp_en.htm

Second estimation for the fourth quarter of 2001: Euro-zone GDP down by 0.2% and EU15 down by 0.1%; +0.6% and +0.7% respectively compared to 4th quarter of 2000

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by 0.2% in the euro-zone and by 0.1% in the EU15 during the fourth quarter of 2001, according to estimates out from Eurostat. Economic growth had reached +0.2% for both zones during the previous quarter. In comparison with the fourth quarter of 2000, the euro-zone GDP grew by 0.6% and that of the EU15 by 0.7%, after increases of 1.4% and 1.5%, respectively, in the previous quarter. During 2001, GDP in the euro-zone increased by 1.5% and EU15 GDP by 1.6%, after 3.3% growth for both zones in 2000.

Commission welcomes Parliament vote on waste electrical equipment and the restriction of hazardous substances

The European Commission has welcomed yesterday's European Parliament plenary vote which has enhanced the Commission Proposal to introduce mandatory collection, re-use and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment throughout the European Union. The Commission has also welcomed the Parliament's endorsement, with amendments, of the related proposal to restrict the use of hazardous substances in new electronic equipment. Waste electrical and electronic equipment is the fastest growing part of the waste stream today. Each European produces on average around 14 kg per year of these wastes. Currently, 90% of this waste is landfilled or incinerated without any pre-treatment.

EU grants €5 million in food aid to the Palestinian populations

The European Commission has approved food aid worth €5 million for the Palestinian populations of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This decision is designed to ensure that those in need have access to adequate food supplies in the coming months. This assistance will fund the purchase of 7,400 tons of wheat flour and 3,200 tons of rice which will be distributed among the poorest families of the non-refugee Palestinian population in the Territories. With an estimated overall target population of 265,000 people, this contribution will provide relief to those households that have become more and more exposed to the risk of food insecurity during the escalating crisis. This initiative constitutes the response by the Commission to the emergency appeal launched by the World Food Programme (WFP) in late 2001, as a consequence of the recent deterioration of the food security situation in the territories.

United States and European Commission agree increased Regulatory Cooperation

The United States authorities and the European Commission announced that they have developed guidelines designed to promote more effective US-EU regulatory cooperation. In particular, the EU and US will share better mutual access to the process of developing regulations. EU Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society Erkki Liikanen, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, United States Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and US Commerce Secretary Don Evans welcomed the Guidelines as an important mechanism for promoting a more positive US-EU trade agenda. Under negotiation since late 1999, the completion of the "Guidelines on Regulatory Cooperation and Transparency" has been a priority initiative for the United States, the European Commission and transatlantic stakeholders.

The Guidelines are available on the Internet at the following respective sites:

http://www.ustr.gov and

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/gov_relations/regulcooptransat.htm

[Background paper IP/02/555]

Eurostat news releases

Transport infrastructure in Europe between 1990 and 1999: 25% more motorways and 4% fewer railway lines in the EU; Motorway density 6 times higher in the EU than in the CEC countries

The length of the motorway network in the EU grew by more than 25% between 1990 and 1999 to total nearly 50 000 km in 1999. As for the length of the rail network, it contracted by 4% in the 1990s and by 1999 was just under 154 000 km.

Motorway density in the EU in 1999 was six times higher than the average observed in the Central European candidate countries (CEC). On the other hand, the density of the rail network was a quarter less. This information comes from a report on the development of transport infrastructure in Europe published by Eurostat.

[Background paper STAT/02/43]

Enlargement news

European parliament "backs enlargement"

A new website of the European Parliament confirms the Parliament's strong support for enlargement. "In December 1997 the European Parliament, while stressing that the membership criteria must be met, immediately recognised the applicant countries' moral right to join the Union. It recommended opening membership negotiations with all the applicant countries that fulfilled the accession criteria - two years later, in Helsinki, the fifteen member states took the same view," it says.

The Parliament is also emphatic over the economic case for enlargement: "Studies forecast long-term macro-economic advantages, which will benefit everyone in this new single market of some 500 million consumers, as has been the case with each previous enlargement. These benefits will more than meet the extra costs to be borne by existing member states", it claims. It admits that some benefits are harder to put a figure on: they include, for example, positive effects on competition, democracy and peace, and a prospect of increased growth and of a single currency for the biggest common market world-wide. But it concludes that "in the view of the European Parliament, not enlarging the Union would be the costly option".

The Parliament's new overview of enlargement does recognise however that there are challenges to be faced. It points out that the candidate countries have to make "considerable" efforts to meet the EU's membership requirements and to put EU law into effect. The Parliament specifically highlights the need to expand administrative capacity, to put EU law into practice, to use and monitor aid, to reform the judiciary and the police, to fight organised, economic and financial crime and trafficking in women, to apply strict safety standards to nuclear power stations and close down high-risk Soviet-designed reactors, and "to respect the rights of minorities, particularly those of the Roma".

It also recognises the challenges that will arise in EU structural assistance programmes. "One thing is certain: enlargement will considerably increase the number of less-favoured regions. Regions which currently receive aid under the Union's regional policy may no longer be seen as less favoured in the enlarged Union if the eligibility criteria are not reviewed. In the view of the European Parliament, the less-favoured regions of the applicant countries must be supported while the less-favoured regions of the existing member states continue to receive aid, with the cohesion criteria presently applied to the fifteen countries being maintained," it says. And in relation to the financial framework - which is now the subject of intense debate - it heavily endorses the views of the European Commission and most of the member states: "The expenditure arising from enlargement must not be allowed to mean that the ceiling for Community expenditure laid down for the period up to 2006, i.e. 1.27% of the European Union's GDP, is exceeded. Since the present budget is nowhere near this ceiling, the Parliament considers this to be a realistic objective."

The Parliament also sets out its own role in the process. Once the negotiations with the individual countries are complete, it says, the European Parliament will decide whether or not to give its consent - known in legal parlance as 'assent' - to the accession treaty. "It is therefore closely monitoring every stage of the enlargement strategy and negotiation process," says the Parliament, noting that since the late 1980s it has been in regular dialogue with the parliaments of what are now the candidate countries, through its interparliamentary delegations. "This dialogue is used by the Parliament and its committee on foreign affairs, human rights, common security and defence policy to exert influence and oversight over accession strategy and negotiations." And since 1995 the Presidents of the European Parliament and of the candidate countries' parliaments have been conducting a political dialogue

(see http://www.europarl.eu.int/presentation/15plus/default_en.htm)

Terms of accession on justice and home affairs

Justice and home affairs was one of the chapters provisionally closed with Malta and Estonia at the accession negotiations in Brussels on March 21. These EU policies touch on some of the most sensitive questions for public opinion - how to maintain and develop the EU as an area of freedom, security and justice. So negotiations are not a matter of agreeing transition periods - none of the candidate countries, nor the EU, has sought them - but of finding ways to build confidence, among member states, in the candidate countries' capacity to implement the acquis.

On issues such as border control, illegal migration, drugs trafficking and money laundering, organised crime, police and judicial co-operation, data protection and the mutual recognition of court judgements, the EU insisted on the need to ensure that candidate countries are equipped to meet adequate and acceptable standards of implementation. Candidate countries' administrative capacity should be up to these standards by the date of accession. The EU has also insisted on the establishment of an independent, reliable and efficient judiciary and police organisation.

One of the most visible components of the EU's justice and home affairs policies is the so-called "Schengen acquis", which results in the lifting of internal border controls. EU accession will not immediately lead to the lifting of border controls between old and new member states. This will be the subject of a separate Council unanimous decision, some time after accession, and after a careful examination of the legal and practical readiness of the new member states. A key tool for each candidate country to demonstrate its preparedness in the Schengen area is its Schengen implementation action plan. These plans have to demonstrate full awareness of the implications of the Schengen acquis, and present a credible schedule for the introduction of its provisions, most of them ahead of accession.

The justice and home affairs chapter has been provisionally closed so far with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The commitments taken by these countries will be closely monitored by the Commission, with substantial help from member state experts. This will be done through monitoring tables, peer review missions, seminars and technical meetings on the new acquis. The chapter is still under discussion with the other candidates - except with Romania, which has yet to start talks on it. But all the candidate countries have transmitted a Schengen implementation action plan.

Hungary's approach to financing rejects "sacrosanct" Berlin agreement

The EU agricultural and structural policies should be fully extended to the candidate countries upon accession, Endre Juhász, the Hungarian ambassador to the EU and its chief negotiator, told the late-March meeting of the European Parliament's budget committee. "It is the responsibility of the EU to provide for the necessary funding," he said. "Hungary is seeking full integration into the European Union," he said. "This is what we call the application of the principle of equal treatment." He rejected the EU contention that the financial framework established in Berlin in 1999 is sacrosanct. It was an act of the European Union, and not of the candidate countries, he said. "It was not negotiated with us," - and, he said, "It is not binding on the candidate countries." And even if the Berlin financial framework is taken as a departure point, it has not, said Juhasz, been fully utilised by the European Commission's financial framework document of 30 January. He questioned the logic of adjusting the EU's own agreement in respect of the number of acceding countries (now ten, instead of six) while not making any adjustment for the funding allocated. "The financial framework should have been adjusted or should be adjusted to take into account the increased number of population of the ten new member states," he insisted. This, he estimated, would require increasing the amounts allocated for years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by about 20% - an increase of about Euro 8.5 billion for enlargement. The Hungarian negotiator also demanded that "the most sensitive area where the Commission proposal must be remedied is that of the direct payments in agriculture". He accepted that "as in other areas of the acquis, we do not rule out short and justified transitional arrangements". But he also insisted that if the direct payments are to be phased in gradually, as the EU is proposing, this should not run to 2013. "The phasing in period must not go beyond the expiration of the present financial perspective, at the end of 2006."

EU enlargement candidate countries to endorse European Charter for small businesses

EU enlargement candidate countries are due to endorse the European Charter for small businesses at a landmark conference in Maribor (Slovenia) on 23-24 April 2002. Key issues at the conference will include education for entrepreneurship, access to finance, simplifying administrative procedures for business start-ups and setting up efficient support services for enterprises. As European Commission President Romano Prodi noted at the Barcelona European Council in March 2002, endorsing the Charter's priorities is crucial to the drive to involve candidate countries more extensively in the policies and working methods at the heart of the Lisbon strategy.