ITEMS FOR WHICH SPACE COULD NOT BE FOUND LAST WEEK
*** EP/NATO: The British Liberal Democrat Graham Watson, President of the EP's Justice and Home Affairs Committee, wrote to the NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson to protest against the use of depleted Uranium during the recent conflict in Kosovo, as see in the report by the UNEP (United Nations Environment programme). He asserted that it is "disgraceful" that NATO completely ignored the population, who will suffer year of environmental damage while questioning whether any compensation will be provided to the civilians.
*** EU/Taiwan: following the Presidential election in Taiwan, the European Commissioner responsible for External Relations, Christopher Patten stated: "Taiwan has made its democratic choice and I congratulate Mr. Chan Shui-bian on his victory. I hope that relations between Beijing and Taipei can develop in a peaceful and constructive way."
*** EU/Norway: The new Norwegian Social Democrat Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, stated, with regard to his governments attitude to the European Union, that "we respect the fact that the Norwegian people said no to the EU in 1994", but that "our ambition is to have a more active policy" towards Europe, using "all the existing possibilities of co-operation." In this government, the Minister for foreign affairs is the very pro-European Thorbjoern Jagland.
*** EU/Germany/Austria: The German press indicated that a Bundestag delegation will soon go to Austria for the first time since the start of the bilateral sanctions decided by the fourteen other Member States on the 31 January. Georg Brunnhubes (CDU), President of the "Gemano-Austrian Parliamentary group" indicated that the delegation of nine German MPs will be in Austria on 4 May for a remembrance ceremony for the victims of the Mauthausen concentration camp.
*** IMF: During its first press conference since obtaining support from Europe and other countries for his candidacy (and before being confirmed in his functions) as new Director General of the International Monetary Fund, Horst Köhler called for a reform of the IMF and asserted that the International Monetary Fund should further concentrate on the crisis prevention. As for the Italian Minister for Finances Giuliano Amato (who was considered as a possible strong candidate to succeed Mr. Camdessus), he said in an interview with the "Financial Times" that the present method of selecting a head, in which "the rest of the world see Europe and America compete to impose their respective candidates." According to him a new procedure foreseeing the initial presentation "of at least a list of names" maybe with a "first confidential phase."
*** Council of Europe/Chechnya: The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Walter Schwimmer, announced that he reached agreement with the Russian representative for Human rights in Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov, in view of sending expert advisors from the Council of Europe to Chechnya. This agreement must still be approved by the committee of Ministers from the pan-European organisation and by the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Igor Ivanov, who will guarantee the expert the right to free movement and access to the local population.
*** Greece/Turkey: The Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, Georges Papandreou, announced that Greece and Turkey will hold "Peace Games" to revive the ancient Greek practice of a truce during the Olympic games. Mr.Papandreou said that the initiative has been approved following consultations with his counterpart Ismail Cem and with the President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch.
*** Untied States/Libya: The first official Austrian mission in Libya since 1980 took place last Sunday; the meetings in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs especially aiming to decide if the Americans will be able to go to Libya, nearly 20 years after the severing of diplomatic relations with Tripoli.
*** European University Institute/Mediterranean: A first conference dedicated to socio-political science concerning the Mediterranean took place between the 22 and 26 March in the framework of the Mediterranean programme of the European University institute in Florence chaired by Yves Mény. 130 guests from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the United States took part in the conference and heard, among others, a speech by the EU special envoy to the Middle East, Miguel Angel Moratinos.
*** Italy/Germany: A seminar on the theme of "European memories" organised by the European History Institute of Mainz by Professor Heiz Duchhardt, took place last week in the Italo-German Villa Vigoni Centre, with the participation of researchers from Germany, Italy, Austria, France, the United Kingdom and Poland.