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1. ACTION PLAN DEFINED TO FIGHT AGAINST THREE MAIN TRANSMISIBLE DISEASES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
On 21 February Commissioner Nielson presented the content of the Commission’s action plan “accelerating the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the context of poverty reduction”.
The actions are centred on three strategic objectives:
1) Optimise the impact and effectiveness of existing interventions by:
a) gain the support of public powers and work closely with civil society in the LDC, which will allow for the increasing of access by these countries to Community interventions;
b) accelerate the pace of the delivery of aid, in accordance with the priority aim that the Commission gave itself in its reform of external aid management.
c) Raise increased coordination with the WHO, the UN, the G8 members, EU member states, the NGOs and the industry.
2) Facilitating access to medicines:
The community will concentrate on supporting and strengthening local production in developing countries, to help them to develop the capacities required to manage the health care sector, research and issues linked to trade. The commissioner found it would be appropriate to “promote the consensus within the WTO fir the developing countries to benefit from the margin of interpretation possible from the TRIPS agreements on intellectual property to tackle issues of public health”. The Community undertaking to promote a differentiated tariff system allowing the poorest developing countries to be supplied with pharmaceutical products at affordable prices would complete this tool.
The untying of aid, which enabled to open the calls of tenders in 77 ACP countries in the framework of public acquisition, increase the competition between Member States, goes, according to Mr. Nielson in the right direction.
To encourage the production of pharmaceutical products in the LDC, the Commission is now proposing to open call for tenders to all Union partner developing countries, on a regional basis (Latin America, Asia countries and the whole Mediterranean).
3) Intensifying research and development of world public goods.
To remedy to aberration, which today means, “that only 10% of research funds are dedicated to diseases that affect 90% of the Southern countries”, it is important to strengthen the capabilities of the LDC to test new products stemming from R&D “so that these countries have a voice in the fight against diseases”.
The action plan, outlined in the Commission communication, will be passed on to the EP and Council for approval before being broken down into specific work plans that will mobilise the services of Commissioners Nielson, Busquin (Research), Liikanen (Industry), Byrne (health), Lamy (trade), and Patten (External Relations).
The document sets out the integrated political framework for the Community action for the 2001-2006 period.
2. COMMISSION POLICY STRATEGY FOR 2002
The six political priorities for the European Commission in 2002 will be “the Euro, sustainable development, governance in Europe, the Mediterranean and cooperation and development” announced the College of Commissioners on 21 February. The Annual Policy Strategy for 2002 will both steer the drafting of its budgetary proposals for 2002, which will be presented in May and its work programme for 2002, which will be presented at the end of the year.
The Mediterranean will be subject to special attention, in terms of staff necessary to carry out the projects and the Commission will try to relaunch the Barcelona process to establish stronger links with the Mediterranean neighbours. In the framework to fight against world poverty, the Commission will concentrate its activity around the measures in terms of health and education.
The EP and the EcoFin Council will have a debate on the budgetary priorities in March, which the Commissionen hopes will be detailed and substantial.
3. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Voting on the report submitted by Ozan Ceyhun (German SPD of Turkish origin) the EP in Strasbourg, rejected through a crushing majority France’s initiative in the adoption of a directive aimed at defining assistance to entry, movement and irregularly stay. The aim of the French initiative was to create, within the Schengen area, a penal framework against “smugglers” who facilitate entry and free movement of illegal immigrants.
Parliament’s rapporteur in particular accused the French initiative to comprising measure to come under both the first pillar (draft directive aimed at defining assistance to illegal entry) and the third pillar (draft framework decision) on repression against those providing such assistance.
Plenary rejected both the French initiative and the amendments that Mr. Ceyhun wanted to make, who stated that assistance to illegal entry into a country of the EU should only be viewed as a criminal act if undertaken in any way for profit, whereas assistance provided for humanitarian reasons should not be punished.
While Alima Boumedienne-Thiery (French, Green) welcomed the rejection of the French proposal, stating that “repressive policies regarding immigration and visas have only succeeded in increasing the number of people without papers”, others for whom, by not forming part of a comprehensive concept, the French initiative would have tended to worsen the situation, Mr. Ceyhun’s idea of tolerating assistance to illegal immigration for humanitarian reasons “would revolutionise” the European legal system.
In Zaragoza last Friday Commissioner Antonio Vitorino presented the broad lines of the “global asylum package” to be published by the Commission before the end of June. The European Commission will propose common European standards concerning illegal immigrants, covering decisions on expulsion, detention and deportation in an overall package of effective and human “immigration” measures. Mr; Vitorino made it clear that “zero immigration policies” are” definitely no longer feasible” and that Europe needs the workforce provided by migrants.
In Denmark the Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said he was opposed to the opening up of the EU borders to bring in information technology specialists from third countries, as is suggested by the European Commission, as Mr. Rasmussen considers there are many unemployed immigrants and refugees who have good qualifications “and that one should ensure that they are the ones who find work instead of discussing importing foreign but unnecessary labour”.
4. FORTHCOMING EVENTS
| 26 February, Brussels | The EP’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Human rights is organising in the afternoon a public hearing on the theme “Iraq and the international community”. |
| 26 and 27 February, Brussels | General
Affairs Council Issues will cover the situation in the Balkans, the Middle East peace process, prospects for pacification in the Democratic Republic of Congo, EU Common Strategies, Everything but Arms and prepare debate on EU’s future. |
The Swedish EU Council Presidency is organising on 1&2 March in Norrkoping, a seminar on the theme “Children in armed conflicts and displaced children”, during which experts will examine the immigrant policies and cooperation for development in the light of children’s rights.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has warned against any easing of the pressure on Burma, saying that the Junta has not taken any measures to put an end to forced labour. In a 300-page document, the ICFTU notes many cases of forced labour recorded after the adoption of the ILO resolution calling for the international community to make relations with Rangoon depend on the cessation of systematic resource of forced labour.
The order of the presidencies–in-office of the Council has been extended. The table is now (including the already known ones):
Sweden/Belgium 2001; Spain/Denmark 2002; Greece/Italy 2003; Ireland/Netherlands 2004; Luxembourg/UK 2005; Austria/Germany 2006; Finland/Portugal 2007; France/Sweden 2008.
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