BRUSSELS BRIEF

This brief is intended to provide a monthly up-date on matters within the European Institutions. More detailed reports of meetings with European Commission and Parliament are provided to ECCE member organisations with Working Papers and Minutes of Meeting.

ECCE BRUSSELS BRIEF: Regular updates: EU policies and actions on Research and development; Education; Environment, Energy; Information Technology; General Interest; Project Financing; News from the European Parliament, Update on Conferences

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The Italian Presidency plans to present a final draft of the EU constitution by the third week of November, ahead of a meeting on the issue set to take place on November 28 and 29 in Naples.

° Competitiveness - commitment to 3% of GDP investment in research: the 16th -17th October Brussels European Council placed particular emphasis on the need for technological innovation including environmental technology, developing human capital through higher investment in education and research as called for by the 22nd September 2003 Council. Member States are asked to become strongly involved in benchmarking, experience-sharing and preparation of mutually consistent measures; to strengthen co-ordination between public and private-funded research and to use the Structural Funds to a greater extent for R & D projects. Rapid progress is called for on the e-Europe action plan - particularly investment in e-Government, e-Health and e-Learning sectors and development of broadband infrastructure and contents.

° Europe Science Foundation (ESF) to provide COST secretariat: A new COST (European cooperation in science and technology) will be based in Brussels. Provision under 6FP for COST - an intergovernmental programme designed to promote research collaboration in Europe, amounts to between Euro 50-80 million over 4 years. Information on COST may be found on: http://cost.cordis.lu/src/home.cfm

° Seven of Europe's top research organisations express commit to developing European Research Area (ERA). The seven EIROforum members who signed a statement of intent along with the Commission are: the European organisation for nuclear research (CERN); the European fusion development agreement (EFDA); the European molecular biology laboratory (EMBL); the European space agency (ESA); the European southern observatory (ESO); the European synchrotron radiation facility (ESRF); and the Institut Laue-Langevin. http://www.eiroforum.org/

° Position papers on European Constitution call for support to research to avoid two-speed ERA: The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) is the latest organisation to propose changes to the draft European Constitution, calling for the scientific communities of peripheral regions and countries to be well integrated into the European Research Area (ERA). The Academy would like to see the following passage added to the Constitution: 'Due attention shall be paid to the harmonious development of the regions, while promoting excellence in research.' EASA also endorses the position of the Academia Europaea, which called on Heads of State and Government to 'make explicit the Union's support for the role of scientific research and scholarship in our collective future development.’ http://www.european-academy.at

° Commission seeks to ensure that research and ethics are in tune: The Commission’s Directorate General for Research has published a web page to guide researchers towards the most important reference texts in the area of ethics in research. Information is available on:

° UK government claims that R&D investment increases companies’ share prices: The latest UK scoreboard, which examined date on the UK’s biggest R&D investors, found that the overall share value of the top 10 firms had increased by 30% in the last six years in spite of a drop in the stock market index of 15% for the same period. More information: http://www.innovation.gov.uk/finance/

° The precautionary principle: Deciding what degree of precaution is necessary: In a recent speech to MEPs and others, precautionary principle expert Professor Ortwin Renn, has suggested that policy-makers should apply five risk management regimes according to degree and type of risk: 1. Routine risk management for dealing with mundane risks 2. Risk-based management for complex and sophisticated risks where a high degree of modelling may be necessary (e.g. industrial plants with hazardous material), 3. Precaution-based management where a high level of uncertainty is involved (green biotechnology) or risk is highly controversial (genetic engineering) 4. where the risk is highly controversial (genetic engineering), policy makers should turn to discourse-based management 5. Prevention when one is dealing with eminent danger. Professor Renn also believes that risks can be divided into three broad categories: those caused by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. Public confidence in the work of scientists can be increased in three ways: increased transparency, two-way communication and participation. The Commission Communication on the precautionary principle is online at: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/cnc/ 2000/com2000_0001en01.pdf

° The tide moves towards a new Bathing Water Directive: Parliament has adopted a legislative resolution at first reading (290 votes in favour, 221 against and 8 abstentions) to set higher standards for the future quality of Community bathing water. This should give more responsibility to regional and local authorities and better information to the general public.

To improve available information, Parliament has backed the introduction of a system of "smileys" (a smiley is a sequence of characters on your computer keyboard such as :- ) . These symbols will indicate whether the quality of bathing water is excellent, good or bad. The Commission is asked to develop a new simplified system to be used throughout the EU, details of which must also be available on an EU website. MEPs and Dutch rapporteur Jules Maaten MEP were agreed that better information to the public was the key issue in the new directive. Swimmers and windsurfers will know whether beach waters are rated good or excellent. Once introduced, it is hoped that the EU public will come to understand and appreciate the smiley system.

Under the current directive, bathers only receive water quality information for the preceding year. In the new system, information will relate to present conditions. Local authorities will be able to demonstrate that their beaches are cleaner than those of competitors. The smileys will not replace the current voluntary current blue flag system but would, however, be introduced Union-wide.

It is unlikely that Parliament, under the current legislature, will be able to complete second reading of the Directive before the 2004 European elections. Introduction is thus envisaged in 2005 at the earliest.

http://dataservice.eea.eu.int/dataservice/available2.asp?type=findmetatag&metaCode=1020&metaText=ETC-WTR The related Eurowaternet report provides guidance to member countries on quality control procedures for Eurowaternet data which need to be taken into account at national and regional levels. The guidance focuses on quality control of sampling and analysis. It describes tests on the integrity of the data carried out by the European Topic Centre on Water before the data are uploaded to the Waterbase database. The report also described an attempt to develop a semi-quantifiable index of the quality of data held in Waterbase http://reports.eea.eu.int/technical_report_2003_98/en

2. New TACIS web-site launched - providing information on the Tacis project "Strengthening environmental information and observation capacity in the Newly Independent States." http://org.eea.eu.int/TACIS/index.html 3. EEA preliminary assessments of effect of summer 2003 heatwave on ozone pollution suggest that is has contributed to the worst ozone pollution seen in Europe for almost a decade. This scenario may well be repeated in future until legally binding EU targets on the emission of precursor pollutants are met. The deadline for Member States to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in ozone causing pollutants is 2010.

list of centres of expertise for each country are now available. The final report on the European Commission Indicators project has also been made available. Towns and cities can join the initiative and measure their progress towards sustainable urban development. Winners of the 2003 European Sustainable City Award are: Ferrara (Italy); Heidelberg (Germany) and Oslo (Norway).

Council comments on indicators for EU Sustainable Development Strategy: The Council of Environment Ministers 2536th meeting on 27th October noted the proposed shortlist of 14 headline structural indicators and considered they should be reformulated and differentiated in relation to the most significant environmental impacts. Minutes of the Meeting appear on http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/envir/77784.pdf

UK introduces new regulations to dispose of end-of-life vehicles: The End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directive came into force on 21st October 2000 (Directive 2000/53/EC). The UK Regulations, laid in Parliament on 9th October will come into effect on 3rd November 2003 outline how authorised handlers should dismantle, recycle and dispose of vehicle materials. In time all fluids will also need to be removed before scrapping. Vehicle manufacturers and importers will take responsibility for free take-back for all ELVs from 2007 and achieving associated recycling targets.

EU sets limits for dangerous substances in paints, varnishes and solvents: From 2007 EU countries will have to reduce the number of toxic substances in car paints, varnishes and solvents and from 2010 this rule will be extended to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are dangerous for the human central nervous system.

The EU directive aims to guarantee greater protection to building site workers, car industry workers and repairers, as well as improving air quality.

Auditors to report on management of LIFE Programme: LIFE is a financial instrument devoted solely to the environment, managed directly by the Commission and implemented in phases. It is the largest programme among special measures under the Environment title of the EU budget. The Court's audit will report on the conception, management and implementation of LIFE, particularly its second phase (LIFE II) on 4th November after which time information will be available: http://www.eca.eu.int/EN/rs/2003/rs11_03.pdf.

Environmental cases: The following have been brought before the European Court of Justice and ordered to pay costs: Netherlands ordered to pay costs (Case C-322/00) for failure to protect waters against nitrate pollution from agricultural sources (Directive 91/676/EEC). Austria was order to suspect the sectoral ban by the First Minister of Tyrol which limited use of the Inn valley motorway from 27th May 2003 to 30th April 2004 (Case 320/03). Italy is ordered to pay costs for failure to limit emissions of VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The U.K. has been ordered to pay costs owing to failure to adopt provisions of Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste (Case C423/02).

° New education programme approved: The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution to set up the proposed the new EU higher education programme - Erasmus Mundus, increasing the budget to €230 million. The existing Erasmus programme promotes university exchanges within the EU; Erasmus Mundus aims to open up Europe's universities and higher education establishments to students throughout the world. The new programme will cover a five-year period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2008.

° OECD report on student absenteeism and disaffection with school: The report from 42 mostly developed nations believes this poses widespread challenges for teachers and policy makers. Disaffection (low sense of belonging) rates vary widely across countries. In Denmark and Spain, 1/3 of students, and in Canada, Greece, Iceland, New Zealand and Poland >1/4, appear regularly to miss school or skip classes. In Japan and Korea, by contrast, less than one in 10 is in the low attendance category - but high attendance does not mean students always feel happy in school. Low sense of belonging is greatest in Japan, Korea and Poland where over 1/3 of students feeling they do not belong in at least one respect. In Hungary, Ireland, Sweden and the U.K., however, the proportion is below one in five. http://www.oecd.org

° Lifelong learning - a challenge for Europe: Education Ministers meeting in Milan noted that “social and economic growth in Europe depends particularly on its educational policies which, compared to the past, must now come to terms with the novelty that modern technology becomes outdated within five years."
At present, average EU investment in education is 5% of GDP. Europe spends half of what the US does on universities, with little contribution from the private sector.

° Expressions of interest invited in hydrogen and fuel cell technology platform: The Commission invites participation from organisations to propose a member of the advisory council, from potential participants in the steering panels and initiatives groups and from national, regional and local projects and initiatives wishing to become associated with platform operations: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/energ y/nn/nn_rt_htp3_en.html

° Common position reach on monitoring eEurope: The Council of Ministers has approved an amendment proposed by European Parliament in 2nd reading to adopt a Decision on a multi-annual programme (2003-2005) for monitoring eEurope, dissemination of good practices and improvement of network and information security (MODINIS programme). The financial framework for implementing this programme is EUR 21 million. The Decision will be adopted in the form of the (amended) common position.

° Urban wi-fi crash predicted for 2004: Business travellers and laptop users may be alarmed to read that a research report predicts that as WiFi LAN technology reaches saturation in some places, there will be an urban wi-fi crash in 2004. This could affect both apartment dwellers and access points. http://www.itu.int

° Trends in internet usage, security and fraud are noted in a Briefing by VeriSign Internet Security Intelligence which seeks to increase understanding of evolving trends to the Internet community and enterprise technology managers. The briefing is mainly based on data and intelligence from VeriSign's critical Internet infrastructure services, including DNS (Domain Name System), digital certificates (SSL and PKI), managed security services, payments and fraud protection. The report indicates that despite perception that e-commerce is declining, there is increase in secure e-commerce - an area in which America clearly dominates the market. More information: http://www.verisign.com/corporate/briefing/briefing.pdf

° VAT - European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) issues draft final report of eInvoicing Focus Group: The Focus Group response relates to a European Commission request to assess standards implications arising from the publication of 2001/115/EC of 20 December 2001 on the simplification, modernisation and harmonisation of the conditions laid down for invoicing in respect of VAT. Click to access

Lisbon-Kiev "Corridor 5" is back on EU list of 29 infrastructure priorities: Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio stated at an informal meeting of 15 EU and 10 future EU transport ministers "We are working to choose the most advanced, mature projects that we can move forward immediately. The others will follow in the next 2-3 years." She added that the European Parliament and Council of Ministers would have to decide on the final list, which may also include the North-South Brenner Corridor.
To finance the whole Van Miert infrastructure plan, de Palacio said it would be necessary to increase the current 600 million euros available to 4.5 billion euros. She said they would have to call on both public and private funds.

At the same meeting De Palacio also announced that European driving licences will be harmonised. The plastic licence, the size of a credit card will soon be issued to EU drivers with a 10-year validity.

Further information may be found on the web-site of the Directorate General for Energy and Transport http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/index_en.html

Information meeting of Transport Ministers in Verona, Italy discusses road safety - Verona Charter, to be presented in Brussels on 4th November: This charter lays down ten guidelines calling for stricter road-safety and monitoring rules, aimed at reducing the number of accident-related road deaths by 50% before the end of 2010. In Italy, a third of the victims, around 2,500, are young people. Italian Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi stated that the Verona event would become an annual appointment, proving ongoing monitoring of progress at a European level.

Reconstruction in Iraq: At the donors’ conference in Madrid, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini announced that the EU has earmarked Euro 700 million for reconstruction in Iraq in 2004. Italy will contribute additional funding of Euro 200 million over the next three years.

- A Euro 100 million is being granted to finance investment planned under the Regional Operational Programme (ROP) of the Region of Sardinia. The investment programme will include infrastructural works (water management, afforestation, environmental monitoring measures, promotion of renewable energy) and incentives for private-sector projects.

- EUR 180 million in loans are being granted to 14 Italian Regions and the Municipality of Naples for reconstruction and hydro-geological consolidation works in the regions stricken by recent natural disasters. The Regions to be assisted are: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania (and Municipality of Naples), Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Marche, Molise, Piedmont, Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany, Umbria and Veneto.

- Cyprus sewerage plans will benefit from an EIB finance agreement amounting to Euro 350,000 grant for the update of the Nicosia Sewerage Master Plan, including feasibility study and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Euro 180,000 for similar work to be carried out in Limassol.

- EIB funds will support the development of the first stage of the new LUAS light-rail system for Dublin. An agreement has been signed for Euro 60 million loan facilities for the Rail Procurement Agency.

Information on European Investment Bank loans is to be found on http://www.eib.org

- A Euro 7 million loan is being granted to Regia Autonoma Aquaserv, the local water utility in Targu Mures, central Romania, to help bring clean drinking water and help improve waste-water services for over 160,000 residents across the municipality. The 15-year loan is guaranteed by the municipality of Targu Mures and is being made alongside a €20.9 million grant from the European Union’s ISPA programme to support the extension of the sewer network, improve storm management within the network and help rehabilitate the water plant.

- As part of its new country strategy to support Hungary EBRD will support the upgrade of transport, environmental and municipal infrastructure, where investments in excess of €20 billion are required over the next 12 years to meet EU requirements. The EBRD will actively support public-private partnership in infrastructure.

A survey by the Bilbao-based European Agency for Safety and health at work indicate that the risk of fatal accidents in enterprises with less than 50 employees is around double that for larger companies. Yet these businesses account for 99% of all EU enterprises and employ about 2/3 of the entire working population of Europe. The report may be downloaded from the Agency’s web-site: http://agency.osha.eu.int/publications/reports/311/en/index.htm

The European Parliament held a committee week in Brussels on 29th September to 3rd October following their plenary session in Strasbourg the previous week. A number of the discussions were of interest to the civil engineering profession. During the week the Budgets Committee voted on the 2004 EU budget, the Environment Committee voted on both the Bathing Water Directive and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. The Regional/Transport Committee adopted a second reading position on the Community railways package. Also on the agenda were the discussions of the Legal Affairs Committee on Recognition of Professional Qualifications, a subject which has proved a major preoccupation for many European organisations representing the professions.

In late October the European Parliament gave the go-ahead to deregulation of EU rail transport, including passenger transport, in 2008.

· Report on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council directive amending Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment , Rapporteur Karl-Heinz Florenz MEP (Germany), Doc Ref: A5-0324/2003

· Report on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council directive concerning the quality of bathing water , Rapporteur Jules Maaten MEP ( NL) Doc.: A5-0335/2003

° “Construction research in an enlarged European Union”, Warsaw, Poland, 6th and 7th November

This workshop event aims to generate collaborative partnerships between researchers from Member States and Associated States in the field of construction research. The programme includes keynote presentations by representatives from the European Commission, Member States and Associated States, as well as industry leaders and experts in the field of construction research.

° Conference on FP6 IST programme, Budapest Hungary, 13th-14th November 2003

The conference aims to tackle the barriers faced by organisations wishing to participate in the EU’s IST programme. Participants will be presented with an overview of the IST programme and information on the first and second calls. Other activities foreseen include: a networking forum, a presentation of IST success stories, and a tutorial on FP6 project management. The conference is being organised by the EU funded project, ideal-ist. Further information is on the following web-site: http://istok.sztaki.hu/events/conference /

° Integrated Lifetime Engineering of Buildings and Civil Infrastructures, Kuopio, Finland, 1st to 3rd December 2003

Symposium themes will be: 1. Ownership planning and management of investments, 2. Integrated life-cycle design, 3. Lifetime management systems 4. Integration and design of management processes, 5. Data for life-time design and management, 6. Norms, standards and guidelines, 7. Best practices in applying life-cycle design and management. Registration and further information may be obtained from http://www.ril.fi/ILCDES2003 or by e-mail to kaisa.venalainen@ril.fi

The 9th international conference will address issues from ‘e-learning policies in practice’ to ‘future technologies for learning’. Workshops will include the use of GRID infrastructures to support future technology enhanced learning http://www.online-educa.com/en/

° International Symposium on Eastern Mediterranean geology, Thessaloniki, 14th-20th April 2004

Thessaloniki, Greece is to be the venue for this conference on structural geology, stratigraphy and tectonics; petrology and geochemistry; volcanology and geothermy; large earthquakes, marine geology, remote sensing and natural hazards, geoarcheology, mineral resources and geology of the Balkan peninsula. http://geonet.geo.auth.gr/5thISEMG/index .htm

° Turkish Civil Engineering - 17th Technical Congress and Exhibition, Istanbul, 15th-17th April 2004

The 17th Technical Congress on Turkish Civil Engineering will be held at Yildiz Tehchnical University in Istanbul. The congress and exhibition aim to present new advances and improvements in technical applications as well as problems and issues affecting the profession. Student project competitions will ensure participation of future professionals and there will be international project presentations. Further information from: http://www.imo.org.tr/teknikkongre17/english/english.htm

° Congress of Croatian Builders, Cavtat (by Dubrovnik), 22nd - 24th April 2004

The 4th Congress of Croatian Builders is being prepared by the Croatian Society of Civil Engineers and will cover the themes of Croatia’s construction industry activities aimed at meeting EU accession requirements and implementation of national strategy for the construction of roads and motorways in Croatia. For participation or paper submission contact: marija@grad.hr

° The Europe of Knowledge 2020: A vision for University-based Research and Innovation, Liege, Belgium, 22nd - 28th April 2004

The conference will discuss the “role of universities in the Europe of Knowledge” raised in the February 2003 Commission communication. Further information on: rtd-consult-univ@cec.eu.int

° 10th International conference on urban transport and the environment, Dresden, Germany, 19th- 21st May 2004.

Latest advances in the field of transport will be discussed and research papers will be presented on: urban transport systems; transport sustainability; environmental aspects; transport demand management; air pollution and emissions control; information systems. Participants will include engineers, scientists and managers working on planning and management of urban transportation systems and transport policy industry in universities, research organisations and government. Further information is located on: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2004 /urbantransport04/index.html

° Intelligent transport systems Congress and exhibition ‘moving towards an integrated Europe’, Budapest, Hungary, 24th to 26th May 2004

The Conference will include discussions on e-safety in an enlarged EU, intelligent vehicle safety systems and ITS for multimodal services without borders. Contributions are expected for 1st December 2003.

° Monitoring the geological environment Segovia, Spain, from 5 to 7 July 2004

An international conference on the monitoring, simulation and remediation of the geological environment aims to attract a multi-disciplinary audience of researchers, practitioners and government employees interested in a variety of areas, including civil engineering, forest and agricultural engineering, geography, biology, ecology and hydrology.

° Advantages for Real Estate and Construction Sector, Helsinki, 13th - 16th June 2005

The 11th Joint CIB International symposium aims to put modern construction management and economics into a perspective of modern real estate and construction businesses and projects. Topics of interest include the evolving sector, firms and their businesses, projects and processes, IT and construction processes, Foundations of our thinking and practice. The call for Papers will be available in October 2003.

ANNEXE: Construction Standards Click Here