Brief items for which space was lacking in earlier editions
*** EU/Court of Auditors: The four new members of the EU Court of Auditors were sworn in at a formal hearing before the Court of Justice on 8 March. They are Belgian Robert Reynders, Spaniard Juan Manuel Fabra Vallés, Irish national Geoghegan-Quinn and Portuguese national Vitor Manuel da Silva Caldeira. Further, Jorgen Mohr (Denmark), Giorgio Clemente (Italy), Aunus Salmi (Finland) and Jan Karlsson (Sweden) have started a new term of office.
*** EU/Kosovo: Accusations of slowness by the European Union in providing aid to Kosovo are "very unfair", declared Bernard Kouchner, special representative of the United Nations in Kosovo, reports AFP. Ten million euros in emergency aid for Kosovo were recently provided by the EU, in addition to the 35 million already promised and due for disbursement soon, he said.
*** General interest services/IGC/Charter of Fundamental Rights: The European Liaison Committee on Services of General Interest (Celsig), after a seminar in Brussels, has made proposals for submission to the IGC, calling in particular for Article 16 of the Treaty to be completed with paragraphs stating that services of general interest are "components of the common values of the Union" and that the EU and its Member States must guarantee access to these services for all. Celsig, which proposes the inclusion of similar texts in the Charter of Fundamental Rights now being drafted, also calls for adoption of a Charter on Services of General Interest at European Union level.
*** IGC/France: Gérard Fuchs has presented to the European Union Delegation of the National Assembly his report on the IGC which states that France should only give up its second Commissioner in exchange for a reweighting of votes in the Council that is favourable to big states (Mr Fuchs is in favour of a dual majority, of Member States and population). In addition, Mr Fuchs calls for the use of qualified majority for questions such as the fixing of minimum VAT rates, savings taxation and company taxation, and notes that States representing a majority of the population should be able to organise enhanced co-operation.
*** EP/EMU: Member of the EP Alexander Radwan (CSU), on the occasion of the presentation of the Greek application for admission to the euro area, affirmed that it is in principle "positive" that more countries want to participate in stage three of EMU, but also noted that, when examining this request, it is important to "keep our eyes wide open", because not doing so would have "fatal consequences". If Greece is admitted to the euro area for purely political reasons, financial markets will "make us pay the bill right away", he stated in a press release.
***EP/United States/WTO: Member of the EP Roberta Angellili (Alleanza Nazionale), in a question to the European Commission, states that the Union Executive, before bringing Section 211 of the US Omnibus Appropriation Act before a WTO panel, should have examined it more closely "in the context of other American laws governing the question of appropriation of goods without compensation" (and which, she states, "do not discriminate against Cuban citizens in relation to those from the rest of the world"). The principle of guardianship of private property "is amply recognised by the Union and Section 211 only reiterates this principle", she observes, adding that if there is an attempt to "demolish this standard through the WTO, we could end up defending the oppressor instead of the oppressed and undermining the right to private ownership".
*** Nuclear energy: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced last week in a statement released in Vienna that there are presently 436 nuclear power stations operating world-wide. In France, reports the IAEA, 75% of electricity comes from nuclear plants, a figure that varies as follows in other countries: 73% in Lithuania, 57.5% in Belgium, 47% in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Sweden, 44% in Ukraine, 43% in South Korea, 38% in Hungary and 36.5% in Armenia.
*** EP/Slovakia: The Belgian Committee for Human Rights in Central Europe, whose members include Nelly Maes (Greens), Member of the European Parliament, last week presented testimony on the situation of minorities and the use of languages in Slovakia, expressing indignation over the fact that the law on languages adopted in 1999 "under pressure from the European Union, is so full of exceptions that it has no substance".
*** Council of Europe/Press: The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has just adopted a recommendation for the 41 COE member countries in which it formally recognises journalists' right not to reveal their sources (which confirms case law of the European Court of Human Rights) and calls for guaranteed protection of journalists against the seizure of materials, searches in their offices or interception of their communications, practices which, according to the decision handed down in 1996 by the Court in the Goodwin case, are likely to constitute violations of freedom of expression.