Lisbon, 24/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - We shall be publishing the full text of the "conclusions" of the European Council in a special issue of our EUROPE/Documents series on Monday. For now, suffice to note:
1. Almost all the text concerns economic and social policy. Those passages that at the outset were the most controversial were the subjects of compromises. Thus: a) the quantified objective for growth (3%) is defined as a "realistic hypothesis for the years to come" as long as the measures and reforms set out are implemented; b) liberalisation is differentiated. The telecoms markets will have to be fully integrated and liberalised for end-2001: for the abolition of obstacles to financial services a strategy has to be defined by the end of the year; new rules for public procurement must be defined by the end of 2002. Liberalisation of the gas, electricity, postal and transport services, on the other hand, must simply be speeded up (water is not mentioned due to Austria's opposition); c) a detailed study has to be made on the futhre development of social security, with special attention to the viability of pension schemes.
2. Balkans. The Secretary General/High Representative (Javier Solana) will, under the authority of the Council Presidency and with full association of the European Commission, ensure the coherence of the EU's policy with regard to the Western Balkans, so as to strengthen the impact of its contribution and coordinaton with the Stability Pact and other efforts of the international community.
3. Russia. The EU Troika will go to Moscow as soon as possible after the presidential elections. The European Council sees in the EU/Russia Cooperation Council of 11 April and the future EU/Russia Summit an important opportunity to secure from the Russian authorities that they respect their commitments regarding a peaceful settlement to the conflict and independent investigations into allegations of human rights violations in Chechnya.
4. European Security and Defence Policy. The European Council invites the Council to set up, either between now and the Feira Summit of at that summit in June, a Committee for civil crisis management (see page 7).
5. Intergovernmental Conference. The European Council took note of the state of progress in the work and the Presidency's intention of presenting a comprehensive report, under its own responsibility, to the Feira Summit.