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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 97-10-16

Midday Express: News from the EU Commission Spokesman's Briefings Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: EUROPA, the European Commission Server at <http://europa.eu.int>

MIDDAY EXPRESS

News from the Spokesman's midday briefing

Nouvelles du rendez-vous de midi du Porte-Paroleb

16/10/97


CONTENTS / CONTENU

[I] Résultats de la Commission du 15 octobre 1997 - Outcome of Commission meeting of 15 October 97

  • [01] Commission takes Portugal to Court on aid for "Empresa para a Agroalimentacão e Cereais S.A. (EPAC)"
  • [II] Other news - Autres nouvelles

  • [02] Commission approves 1998 animal disease eradication programme
  • [03] Ritt Bjerregaard underlines the need for progress on CO² emissions from passenger cars
  • [04] La Commission autorise la concentration entre le groupe Crédit Suisse et Winterthur
  • [05] Vers une nouvelle initiative communautaire de développement rural: 800 leaders s'expriment
  • [06] Commission asks WTO to rule on Chilean liquor tax regime
  • [07] EU-Japan industrialists round table
  • [08] Firm commitment on EU membership for Romania and Bulgaria
  • [09] Inauguration d'une plaque commémorative à la mémoire d'Albert Borschette
  • [10] Mario Monti: "Effective market surveillance essential for Single Market"
  • [11] Padraig Flynn explains the need for employment targets

  • [I] Résultats de la Commission du 15 octobre 1997 - Outcome of Commission meeting of 15 October 97

    (voir aussi - see also Midday Express of 15.10)

    [01] Commission takes Portugal to Court on aid for "Empresa para a Agroalimentacão e Cereais S.A. (EPAC)"

    The European Commission decided to take the Portuguese Government to the European Court of Justice because of its non-compliance with a Commission decision of July 7th which obliged the abolition of state aid to the public company EPAC, S.A. On 9 July 1997, the Commission adopted a final negative decision on the aids taken by the Portuguese government in favour of public owned cereal trading company EPAC. These measures concerned a state guarantee for a total amount of 30,000 million escudos, as well as special financing conditions in the framework of a debt consolidation loan of 48, 700 million escudos. This final negative decision required suppression of the said guarantee as well as recovery of the amounts unduly granted. On 29 September 1997, the Portuguese authorities have supplied evidence that the requirements of the decision have not been complied with.

    [II] Other news - Autres nouvelles

    [02] Commission approves 1998 animal disease eradication programme

    The European Commission has adopted the animal disease eradication programmes presented by the Member States for 1998. The European Union budget will contribute ECU 48.5 million, funded under a special decision relating to expenditure in the veterinary field, towards the eradication of 13 major diseases in Member States and neighbouring countries. The diseases targeted by the programme are those which have implications for both human and animal health or cause serious losses in livestock farming and constitute barriers to trade in the internal market or international trade in animals and animal products.

    [03] Ritt Bjerregaard underlines the need for progress on CO² emissions from passenger cars

    In view of the meeting today of the Council of Environment Ministers of the European Union (EU) in Luxembourg, Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard has written to the Environment Ministers of the Member States to inform them about the progress of the Commission's discussions with the European Automobile Manufacturers Association on an environmental agreement on CO² emissions from passenger cars. An agreement whereby the automobile industry would commit itself to significantly lowering the average CO² emissions of new cars is one of the elements of the EU strategy to reduce CO² emissions from passenger cars. The objective of the strategy is to achieve an average CO² emission value of 120 g/km by 2005 for all new passenger cars sold in the EU. Expressing her disappointment with the progress made so far, Mrs Bjerregaard said: "The auto industry has made a proposal for an agreement which is far away from what the Commission and the Council have in mind in terms of the fuel-efficiency objective. If an agreement fails and we should decide to move towards limit values - as the European Parliament has already suggested - the target-sharing will no longer be decided by the industry itself but for the industry in the EU's legislative process".

    [04] La Commission autorise la concentration entre le groupe Crédit Suisse et Winterthur

    La Commission européenne a autorisé le projet de fusion totale entre les entreprises suisses Crédit Suisse Group et Winterthur Schweizerische Versicherungs-Gesellschaft. Les deux entreprises sont actives dans le secteur bancaire et financier ainsi que dans le secteur des assurances. La fusion donne naissance au premier groupe financier suisse, qui détiendra des positions de tête dans l'activité commerciale à destination des clients individuels et dans l'assurance non vie. Le groupe sera également le deuxième offreur d'assurance vie. La nouvelle entité comptera parmi les cinq plus grands groupes financiers européens et sera le troisième offreur mondial en matière de gestion d'actifs financiers. Selon les constatations de la Commission, la concentration ne produit néanmoins des additions notables de parts de marché dans aucun des marchés de produits concernés dans les secteurs de la banque et de l'assurance, à l'intérieur de l'Union européenne.

    [05] Vers une nouvelle initiative communautaire de développement rural: 800 leaders s'expriment

    Suite à la publication de l'Agenda 2000, Franz Fischler, Commissaire européen à l'Agriculture et au Développement rural, réunit à Bruxelles les 9, 10 et 11 novembre prochain quelque 800 "développeurs ruraux" locaux ainsi que 200 responsables politiques et administratifs des quinze pays de l'Union européenne (UE), des pays d'Europe centrale et orientale candidats à l'adhésion et de Chypre. Objectif: à partir des enseignements de LEADER (Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Economie Rurale), préparer une nouvelle initiative communautaire en faveur du développement rural pour la période 2000-2006. Plus de 800 régions de l'UE participent au programme LEADER qui porte sur un montant de plus de 4.000 millions d'Ecus. "Puisque le développement rural continuera à être l'une des trois seules initiatives communautaires dans le futur, a déclaré M. Fischler, nous devons profiter de l'expérience des bénéficiaires directs de ces programmes pour nous aider à façonner les actions futures dans ce domaine."

    [06] Commission asks WTO to rule on Chilean liquor tax regime

    The European Commission will today request the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to rule whether Chilean taxation of alcoholic beverages violates world trading rules. The request will be formally tabled at the meeting of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body. At issue is the wide gap between the tax rates imposed on imported spirits and on local produce. Whisky faces 70% tax, vodka and the majority of other imported spirits face 30% tax, while the local Pisco spirit faces only 25%. Sir Leon Brittan, Vice- President of the European Commission, said: "The Commission is determined to use the WTO to open markets in countries that unfairly discriminate against European exports. The European Union has won the dispute with Japan and has started proceedings against Korea. The same reasons to pursue the same route exist for Chile. We must continue to use the Dispute Settlement Procedure of the WTO to remove unfair barriers to our exports".

    [07] EU-Japan industrialists round table

    The fourth meeting of the European Union (EU) and Japanese industrialists Round Table will take place in Brussels on 16-17 October 1997. Its purpose is to develop a permanent dialogue on industrial policy issues of common interest between some of the most prominent industry leaders of Japan and the EU, in order to discuss jointly how to address competitiveness challenges faced by industry, to make recommendations to public authorities on (de)regulation measures and industrial policy actions likely to improve the competitiveness of both sides' industries and to identify fields where EU-Japan industrial cooperation should be developed. The EU-Japan Industrialists Round Table was first held in February 1995. The Round Table consists of approximately thirty top European and Japanese executives from various industries (i.e., automobile, electronics, chemistry, machinery etc.). The meetings are co-chaired by Viscount Etienne Davignon, Chairman of Société Générale de Belgique, and former Vice President of the European Commission, and Dr. Tadahiro Sekimoto, Chairman of NEC Corporation and Vice Chairman of Keidanren.

    [08] Firm commitment on EU membership for Romania and Bulgaria

    European Commissioner Hans van den Broek, responsible for External Relations with Central and Eastern countries, will use a two day visit to Bulgaria (16/10/97) and Romania (17/10/97) to reconfirm the European Union's (EU) commitment to the future membership of these two countries. "The Commission's work will not be done until both Romania and Bulgaria are full members of the EU. We welcome the pace of economic reforms in both countries and hope the preparations for membership will be accelerated. We will continue to support these efforts". In Bulgaria, Mr van den Broek will sign a special Phare programme of social assistance of ECU 20 million. This doubles the amount given to date, which targets the neediest in Bulgarian society such as orphans and pensioners. In Romania, he will participate in a European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party conference, speaking on "the road to enlargement".

    [09] Inauguration d'une plaque commémorative à la mémoire d'Albert Borschette

    A l'occasion de la présidence du Conseil des Ministres, le gouvernement luxembourgeois commémore la mémoire d'Albert Borschette, ancien Représentant permanent du Luxembourg auprès des Communautés européennes et ancien membre de la Commission européenne, qui a donné son nom au Centre de conférences Albert Borschette (CCAB). Une plaque commémorative sera dévoilée aujourd'hui au CCAB en présence du Président de la Commission, Jacques Santer et du Représentant permanent du Luxembourg auprès de l'Union européenne, Jean-Jacques Kasel. Albert Borschette était né le 14 juin 1920 à Diekirch (Luxembourg). Il était devenu Représentant permanent du Grand- Duché auprès de la Commission en 1958. De 1970 à 1976, il avait été membre de la Commission, notamment reponsable de la concurrence.

    [10] Mario Monti: "Effective market surveillance essential for Single Market"

    "Market surveillance is vitally important to the Single Market because markets depend on confidence in order to work properly", Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti told the "European Conference on Market Surveillance" conference in Stockholm on 16 October. "Legislative measures alone are not enough. Surveillance of how the measures are working 'on the ground' is needed to ensure a level playing field and the confidence of companies and citizens. Member States need to resolve problems quickly, without always necessarily involving the European Commission. As from now, businesses and citizens can take a complaint straight to the contact points in their own Member State and demand that their problem be sorted out. In most cases, this should produce a prompt remedy. 13 Member States have designated contact points for business and 12 have done so for citizens. The contact points will be publicised across the European Union through the Citizens First programme, and from next year by the permanent Dialogues with Business and the Citizen."

    [11] Padraig Flynn explains the need for employment targets

    Speaking today at a conference in Bruges, Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner, Padraig Flynn, said "The European Union must move progressively from an employment rate of about 60% of the working age population to a level that puts us on a par with our major trading partners in the world, a rate of 70% and more. This is an ambitious but realisable goal." He went on to say that, "Member States are coming to realise that in order to tackle long-term and youth unemployment in their economies, they must proceed with radical reform of all their employment policies. Instead of passively accepting unemployment as a sort of inevitable fate, governments must actively seek to get people into jobs in a new and much more vigorous policy framework. With incentives come targets. We have to find some way of measuring this move from passive to active policies if it is to be credible."

    MIDDAY EXPRESS


    From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
    © ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996


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