SPAIN BEGINS ITS PRESIDENCY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION –

Spain holds the Presidency of the EU and of the Council of Ministers from January to June 2002.   Spain’s Presidency coincides with the launch of the euro which has now been adopted by 12 Member States and Spain has emphasised the pro-European character of activity planned over the next six months under the slogan “More Europe”.  The priorities of the Spanish presidency were set out in greater detail in the December 2001 ECCE Brussels Brief.   Key tasks to be accomplished are:

1.      Combat terrorism

2.      Successful introduction of the Euro

3.      To promote the Lisbon Process during the Barcelona European Council (liberalisation of Europe’s economy)

4.      European Union enlargement

5.      Foreign Affairs: More Europe around the world

6.      Debate Europe’s future

Special attention will be paid to five specific areas:

a) A European transport and telecommunications space

b) A single energy market – complete opening up of the electricity and gas markets

c) A single financial market – seen as a logical consequence of the Euro

d) The aim of full employment in Europe by 2010

e) To achieve a knowledge-based, competitive and dynamic economy

For further details, the Spanish Presidency web-site is located on the internet at: http://www.eu2002.es

News from the Spanish Presidency:

Proposed creation of European Agency for Rail Safety and Inter-operability

Francisco Alvarez-Cascos, Spain’s Minister for Internal Development appeared before the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism to present the Presidency’s objectives for rail, road, maritime and air transport.   Mr Alvarez-Cascos believes it would be useful to set up a European Agency for Rail Safety and Interoperability “along the lines of the agencies currently being set up in the maritime and air sectors”.

The Presidency will endeavour to ensure that budgetary funds are made available in March to continue financing the ‘Galileo’ satellite navigation project.  It is then hoped that a Joint Undertaking to manage the project will be approved in June to create “a Europe capable of providing services in telecommunications and aerospace technology, rather than resigning ourselves to being a Europe which is no more than a consumer market for those services”.  Galileo aims to be an autonomous European-developed, state-of-the-art Global Navigation System.  Development would avoid the problems caused by current dependence on Russian and US satellites over which Europe has no control.  Currently, Galileo seeks private financing for development, a move which has been criticised by the US.

A “wide-ranging political debate” is planned on the Transport White Paper, with a view to producing conclusions for the Seville European Council.  The White Paper emphasises demand management  and seeking to break the link between transport growth and economic growth.  It includes a large number of measures to revitalise alternatives to road transport and to target investment in the trans-European network.  Short-sea shipping is another measure seen as making an “effective contribution towards achieving environmental objectives”.  These issues will be examined on 31^st May and 1^st and 2^nd June at the meeting of Transport Ministers in Gijon in the Asturias region of Spain.

NEWS ITEMS FROM THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS:

New President for the European Parliament

Pat Cox, an Irish independent MEP succeeded outgoing President Mme Nicole Fontaine as the President of the European Parliament for the second half of its five-year term.  Ms Cox a former TV journalist and economics lecturer, has been an MEP since 1989 and has been leader of the European Liberal Democrats since1998.

The election was closely contested, Mr Cox securing an absolute majority with 298 votes after three votes out of a total valid vote of 568.  His closest challenger was Scottish Labour MEP David Martin who polled 237 votes at the third ballot.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Industry and Research Ministers meet on 1-2 February 2002

An informal meeting of EU Industry and Research Ministers was scheduled for early February in Girona, Spain.  Key to discussions was the desire to reverse the growing gap between Europe and the US in R & D investment by business.   On the agenda were joint debates on public support mechanisms for R & D and innovation and encouraging mobility of researchers and technology so that Europe could retain and attract the best researchers  Currently researchers struggle with different social and taxation systems, visa-problems for non-EU researchers visiting Europe and intellectual property rights issues.

A case-study under consideration is that of bio-technology (further information on http://europa.eu.int/comm/biotechnology/introduction_en.html and in relation to bio-entrepreneurs on http://europea.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/biotech/introduction_en.html).

Presentations were to be given to ministers on wind power and solar energy to indicate possible public-private collaboration and spin-offs from university research.

Another issue addressed is funding European research, following agreement between the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) in June 2001 to maximise benefits of EC grants (Research Framework Programme) and loans/risk capital granted by EIB for research activities through its Innovation 2000 initiative.

Key issues and web-info sources are set out below:

Mobility of researchers: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp5/pdf/finalreportmobilityhleg.pdf

Innovation: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/innovation/index.htm

Competitiveness: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/competitiveness/index.htm

Access to finance: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/financing/index.htm

ENVIRONMENT:

Environmental Liability:  On 23^rd January the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive on environmental liability.  This follows lengthy consultation processes in producing both a Green and a White Paper.  Member States are required by the proposal to ensure that environmental damage is restored by assessing the gravity and extent of damage and determining the appropriate restorative measures required.  The competent authority may required the operator to undertake necessary preventive or restoration measures at operator’s expenses or may implement those measures itself or via a third party.  If one or several operators are liable, the competent authority must conform to the polluter pays principle and recover costs from liable operators.

Operators potentially liable for prevention/restoration costs are listed in Annex I and include activities releasing heavy metals into water/air, installations producing dangerous chemicals, landfill sites and incineration plants.  Bio-diversity damage restoration will be incurred only where operators are found to be negligent; this damage is hardly covered at present by national laws.

Exemptions and defences include authorised emissions or activities and emissions believed to be safe for the environment according to the state of scientific and technical knowledge when they occur.  Operator insolvency may hinder cost recovery but impact may be limited by adequate financial insurance of potential damage – Member States will be free to implement adequate financial security arrangements.

Implementation: The proposal will be presented to the Environment Council at its meeting on 4^th March 2002.  This will start the legislative procedure at the end of which the European Parliament and Council of Ministers will jointly adopt the new Directive.  This so-called co-decision procedure usually takes 2-3 years.  Once the Directive is finally adopted, Member States will have two years to implement it in national law.

EEA analysis on “Late lessons from early warnings” draws lessons for policy-making:  A European Environment Agency report recommends using the precautionary principle in policy-making following cases such as CFC damage to the ozone layer and the ‘mad cow’ disease epidemic’ where public policy was formulated against a background of scientific uncertainty or surprise developments, or where clear evidence of hazards to people and the environment was ignored.  Recommendations included acknowledging and responding to ignorance, as well as uncertainty and risk, in technology appraisal and public policy-making, identifying and reducing inter-disciplinary obstacles to learning, evaluating a range of alternative options for meeting needs alongside the option under appraisal and ensuring use of “lay” and local knowledge, as well as relevant specialist expertise in the appraisal.  The report and its individual chapters can be downloaded from the EEA web-site at http://reports/eea.eu.int

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