1.
COMMISSION EXPECTED TO PRESENT ITS REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL
POSTS FOR THE 2001 BUDGET.
The European
Commission is expected to present its correcting letter to the
2001 budget earlier than planned. In the letter it will formally
call for the Council and Parliament to grant the increased number
of 400 additional posts for 2001 as presented end of July by
Romano Prodi and Neil Kinnock. In its staffing requirements it
will, moreover, take into account the gradual disappearance of
the technical assistance bureaux (TABs) which the Commission will
request for the transitional period preceding the establishment
of new structures in order to be able to use part of the budget,
previously intended for these offices, for the remuneration of
temporary agents working within the Commission.
2.
STRUCTURAL AID TO BURUNDI MAY RESUME ON CERTAIN CONDITIONS.
At the Peace and
Reconciliation Agreement signing ceremony in Arusha, Commission
President Romano Prodi welcomed the role played in this long and
difficult process by the former South African president Nelson
Mandela, as well as by the other leaders of the region.
Mr. Prodi, recalls
that the EU has supported the peace process since the beginning,
including humanitarian aid, with a total amount of aid is EUR 55
million, including EUR 8 million for a new Rehabilitation
programme, intended to improve the poorest living conditions,
support the justice sector and future demobilisation programmes
and reconciliation activities.
Mr. Prodi also
points out that structural aid to Burundi “should resume
gradually once the following conditions are met: active
engagement of all parties in the peace negotiations and
improvements in human rights and in the security situation”.
3.
THE EUROPEAN OMBUDSMAN CONFIRMS CRITICISM ON NEW SECRECY CODE FOR
COUNCIL.
Following up on
point 6 from last weeks PAF also the European Ombudsman, Mr.
Söderman, has reacted to the fears expressed by the
International Federation of Journalists concerning the new rules
of the EU Council on public access to documents relating to
security and defence matters. Mr. Söderman feels that these new
council rules are not necessary. He considers that “the old
rules, and those proposed this year by the Commission, were
perfectly adequate for ensuring that delicate military
information be kept secret” and that this is a
“limitation on access which everybody should accept”.
MR. Söderman stresses further that extending secrecy to
“non-military crisis management” could be applied to a
whole range of areas currently open to public scrutiny. He
further specifies “they can also make defence policy papers
permanently secret. I accept that sensitive operational aspects
of defence have to be kept secret. However, policy matters should
normally be accessible for the citizens so that that can
understand and discuss the policy in question”.
For further
information on this and many other interesting issues visit the
web site Statewatch News: www.statewatch.org/news/
Also the European
Parliament has made an appeal against the Council decision. The
Chair of the Committee on Citizen’s Freedoms and Rights, Mr.
Graham Watson, has written to Parliament President Nicole
Fontaine to ask her to refer to the Committee on Legal Affairs
and the Internal Market the court action against the decisions
taken by the Council and its Secretary General. Mr. Watson
writes, among others, “… it is the opinion of our
Committee that such actions infringes upon the content of Article
255, paragraph 2, of the Treaty whose regulation must be
established in co-decision between the Parliament and the
Council”.
The Committee on
Citizens’ Rights will hold a public hearing on access to
documents on Monday 18 September. It will then adopt the report
by Michel Cashman on the draft regulation, based on Article 255
of the EC Treaty, relating to the general principles and the
limits which, for public or private interest reasons, govern the
rights of access to documents of the Parliament, Council and
Commission.
4.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PLENARY SESSION.
From 4 to 8
September the EP will have its first plenary session after the
summer break.
On the programme
will be the situation in the Middle East (which will be
one of the main themes of the “Gymnich”-type meeting of
EU Foreign Ministers on 2&3 September, in Evian). The council
and the Commission will issue declarations on the Union’s
priorities concerning external actions and on the creation of
an Observatory on Industrial Change, and the Council will
present the proposed EU Budget for 2001.
The session will
start with a debate on two reports concerning the MEDA
programme (the implementation of which has encountered serious
problems). The two reports are by Valdivielso de Cué (EPP,
Spain) on amendments to the MEDA regulation on financial and
technical measures for the reform of economic and social
structures in the context of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership (consultation),
and by Piétrasanta (French Green) on the annual report on
implementation of the MEDA programme 1998.
Galeote Quecodo
(EPP, Spain) report on the establishment of common diplomacy
for the EU. This reports notes that, despite CFSP’s
intergovernmental nature, “the political focus of
decision-making is shifting from national capitals to
Brussels”, which means that “officials from the Council
and Commission are actively involved in the (EU’s) external
policy”. According to the rapporteur “steps must be
taken to establish a genuine European diplomatic corps” by
creating a College of European Diplomacy.
Imbeni (I,
Democratica di sinistra) report on the Commission’s
communication on the assessment and future of EU humanitarian
activities
During the
September Session Mr. Wurtz, President of the GUE/NGL has asked
the President Nicole Fontaine, to include on the agenda a
Commission and Council declaration on the follow up to be made
to the Durban international conference on AIDS.
5.
PRODI IN FAVOUR OF RELAUNCHING BARCELONA PROCESS.
In an article
published simultaneously in an Italian and Egyptian daily, Romano
Prodi called for the Euro-Mediterranean policy to be relaunched.
While Chris Patten is expected to present a communication to the
Commission next week to propose “fresh impetus for the
Barcelona Process” with a view to the Euro-Mediterranean
meeting on 13 November, in Marseille, the Commission President
prepares the ground for the dialogue to be rekindled: development
of EIB financing and Arab and European investment, the definition
of common projects in the transport and environment sectors in
particular, and immigration policy. “While the European
Union is enlarging to the East, its relations with the
Mediterranean call for new and geo-economic strategies that
require a long-term perspective and adequate working
mechanisms”, writes Mr. Prodi.
6.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS.
The European
Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) is organising the 22nd
meeting of the ACP-EU economic and social circles from 13-15
September in Brussels. It will be the first opportunity that
organisations of civil society will have to discuss the
provisions of the new Convention. The participants will debate:
1. precisely how ACP and EU economic and social interest groups
can impact on the framing and the implementation of national and
regional development policies; 2. the consultative function as a
factor for democratisation and development. A press release from
the Committee recalls that the new 20-year agreement concluded by
the ACP states and the EU now provides the economic and social
circles of the ACP States with a major voice on issues of
development.
The Eurostep
secretariat is invited to participate.
On 21 September in
Brussels, the Commission is organising a hearing on the
“Reduction of surplus capacity of the Community fleet and
fishing activity”. Commissioner Franz Fischler is expected
to recall that the incidence of the Fourth Multi-Annual Guidance
Programme (MAGP IV) has not allowed the problems of over-capacity
to be resolved.
The Eurostep
secretariat will follow the event seen in relation to the working
group on coherence.
7.
IN BRIEF
Two European
companies victim to the US sanctions in the Banana dispute has
taken the European Commission to Court, but the Commission denies
all legal responsibility for the losses suffered.
“Lomé
convention used to impose repatriation on the world’s
poorest countries” is the title of an analysis of the much
contented clause in the agreement obliging ACP countries to take
back people expelled from the EU. For the full article see the
above-mentioned web site of Statewatch News.