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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 03-10-02
From: EUROPA, the European Commission Server at <http://europa.eu.int>
CONTENTS / CONTENU
[01] Commission proposes EU action to protect European eels
[02] L'Agence Européenne de la Sécurité Aérienne prend son envol
[03] Anna Diamantopoulou before European Parliament's Social Affairs
Committee and Women's Rights Committee
[04] Nitrates in the Netherlands : Commission welcomes European Court
ruling
[05] August 2003 : industrial producer prices up by 0.2% in euro-zone and
EU15
[06] Commission clears sweetener joint venture between Arla Foods and
Nordzucker
[07] Commission clears acquisition of Tamro by Phoenix
[08] EU-ACPs : opening of trade negotiations with West and Central Africa
[09] Autre matériel diffusé
Midday Express 02/10/2003
TXT: FR ENPDF:DOC:Midday Express 02/10/2003
[01] Commission proposes EU action to protect European eels
The European Commission has adopted a Communication on the development of
an EU Action Plan for the management of European eels. This stock is
currently outside safe biological limits. This is mostly due to fishing at
unsustainable levels and the effects of other human activity on the eels'
habitats and migratory patterns. As eels are to be found at various stages
of their life-cycle in the waters of the northern Atlantic and then in
fresh and brackish waters in almost all of Europe and northern Africa,
coordinated conservation measures are needed to safeguard the stock. This
is why the Commission proposes that eel management be built up from a set
of local actions to be put in place by the Member States according to an
agreed standard. These actions should ensure the survival and the migration
of the eel in all its habitats. While this plan is being developed, the
Commission will propose urgent measures to ensure that mature eels can
migrate back to the sea to spawn. The Commission intends to formulate the
urgent measures at the beginning of next year and the long-term management
system at the end of 2004.
[02] L'Agence Européenne de la Sécurité Aérienne prend son envol
L'Agence Européenne de la Sécurité Aérienne est opérationnelle depuis le 28
septembre 2003. "La Commission européeen se réjouit que l'Agence puisse
commencer dès maintenant ses activités de certification", a déclaré Loyola
de Palacio, Vice-Présidente en charge de l'Energie et des Transports.
"Grâce à l'Agence, l'encadrement du haut niveau de sécurité et de
protection environnementale dont bénéficient déjà les passagers aériens et
les citoyens de l'Union sera significativement renforcé. Quant à
l'industrie aérienne, elle verra ses coûts diminuer grâce à la délivrance
par l'Agence de certificats uniques, reconnus dans l'ensemble de l'Union."
[03] Anna Diamantopoulou before European Parliament's Social Affairs
Committee and Women's Rights Committee
Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for Employment and Social
Affairs, today appeared before two European Parliament Committees to give
the current state of play in European employment and social affairs. She
set out the priorities for the year ahead, including the protection of
workers' data, working time, the health and safety strategy, consultation
on the revision of the Works Council Directive and finalisation of the
modification of the regulation on social security for migrant workers.
[04] Nitrates in the Netherlands : Commission welcomes European Court
ruling
The European Commission welcomes today's ruling by the European Court of
Justice against the Netherlands over water pollution by nitrates. The Court
has upheld all Commission arguments that the Netherlands has not taken
strict enough measures to control agricultural practices that lead to
excessive nitrate levels. High amounts of nitrates in surface waters cause
damaging algal blooms, and in drinking water they present a risk to public
health. Under the EU Nitrates Directive, Member States are required to
implement action programmes to combat nitrate pollution by agriculture. The
Court found that the action programme of the Netherlands suffers from
several shortcomings, notably : the Court rejects the use of the loss-based
system, known as MINAS (Mineralenaangiftesysteem) to control nitrate
pollution under the Directive. In order to combat pollution at source, the
directive requires clear limits on the amount of nitrogen fertilizers
applied to land. In contrast MINAS does not set such limits but instead
tries to control pollution by imposing levies on farmers for nitrogen
losses to the environment. The Court also found that the Netherlands had
not established rules clearly limiting the quantities of manure spread on
land to the maximum amounts of 170 kilo/hectare set in the Directive.
Further weaknesses were also found. Commenting on the Court ruling,
Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström said : "We will be examining
carefully the details of this welcome judgement. We look forward to
receiving a revised action plan from the Netherlands in order to clear up
the shortcomings that the Court has found. This will also allow us to make
further progress in the constructive discussions that have already taken
place on a possible derogation for the Netherlands." Today's decision
reinforces the efforts that the Commission is making to reduce the nitrate
load to surface waters and ground-waters across the EU.
[05] August 2003 : industrial producer prices up by 0.2% in euro-zone and
EU15
The euro-zone industrial producer price index increased by 0.2% in August
2003 compared with the previous month, Eurostat estimates today. EU15
prices also increased by 0.2%. In July 2003 prices rose by 0.1% in the euro-
zone and remained unchanged in the EU15. In August 2003 compared to August
2002, industrial producer prices increased by 1.4% in the euro-zone and
1.5% in the EU15. For the first time this month, data for the Acceding
Countries are included in Annex.
[06] Commission clears sweetener joint venture between Arla Foods and
Nordzucker
The European Commission has granted clearance under the Merger Regulation
to the creation of a joint venture between Danish/Swedish company Arla
Foods Ingredients amba (AFI) and German sugar company Nordzucker AG. The
venture will manufacture and distribute a new sweetener product called
Gaio®-tagatose for which AFI holds the patent. (The operation, notified on
1 September 2003, was examined under the simplified merger review
procedure)
[07] Commission clears acquisition of Tamro by Phoenix
The European Commission has granted clearance under the Merger Regulation
to the acquisition of full control of the Finnish pharmaceutical
distributor Tamro Oyj by German pharmacist Phoenix International
Beteiligungs GmbH. (The operation, notified on 29 August 2003, was examined
under the simplified merger review procedure)
[08] EU-ACPs : opening of trade negotiations with West and Central Africa
The EU and the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries will give a
strong push to their joint trade and development plans with the launch of
negotiations for Economic and Partnership Agreements between the EU and the
Western and Central African regions. Ahead of this event, on 2 October 2003,
European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Development Commissioner Poul
Nielson will meet with Trade Ministers of the 77 ACP countries. They will
take stock of results of the first phase of the negotiations of Economic
Partnership Agreements (EPA), covering all-ACPs, which were launched in
September 2002 and discuss how to progress with regional EPA negotiations
between the EU and individual ACP regions. The two Commissioners will then
travel to Africa to launch regional negotiations with Central Africa in
Brazzaville on 4 October 2003 and with West Africa in Cotonou on 6 October
2003.
[09] Autre matériel diffusé
Speech by Erkki Liikanen : "How can Europe trigger and seize the
opportunities ahead ?" at the IST 2003 opening plenary session (Milan)
Speech by David Byrne : "Progress in building consumer protection" at the
Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy Committee of the European
Parliament
La proposition de règlement sur les allégations nutritionnelles et de
santé: mythes et malentendus
From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
© ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996
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