Brief items for which space was lacking in earlier editions
*** EP/Austria: The Greens/European Free Alliance Group of the European Parliament has announced that EP President Nicole Fontaine, during Austrian President Thomas Klestil's visit to Parliament, "led with diplomacy and courage a very sensitive discussion", her discourse and attitude fitting perfectly into the "spirit of Parliament's resolution of 3 February". Group Co-Chairs Heidi Hautala and Paul Lannoye regretted that, following her speech in plenary, Mrs Fontaine had to "suffer the attacks of certain EPP Group Members and others", according to a statement.
*** EP/Germany: German Christian Democrat Members of the European Parliament Christoph Konrad and Werner Langen have welcomed the European Commission's decision to initiate proceedings before the Court of Justice against the Union in the case concerning the regional WestLB bank. Mr Langen said clarification by the Court was needed because Germany has not yet proposed an "acceptable compromise".
*** EU/Commission/Crime: During his visit to Vienna for the opening of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism, Commission President Romano Prodi held a two-hour meeting with Pino Arlacchi, Director General of the United Nations Office in Vienna and Director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, according to a UN press release. Mr Arlacchi explained UN programmes for the monitoring of illicit crops and the Commission President assured him that he would forward this information to the relevant European Commissioners.
*** EU/Poland: According to a report by the daily Prawo i Gospodarska (reproduced by AFP), Poland's Court of Auditors has discovered irregularities in 35 of the 54 projects financed by the Phare programme.
*** Austria: According to surveys conducted by Spectra Institute and reported in the daily Der Standard, the parties in the Austrian coalition government, the ÖVP and the FPÖ, would only have the support of 24% of voters today, whereas they each scored 27% in last October's elections. According to the same surveys, the Social Democrats have remained stable, with 34% voting intentions.
*** Greece/Cyprus: The Greek press agency ANA is reporting that the National Bank of Greece has announced its intention of entering the Cyprus securities exchange and that it is only awaiting the abolition of restrictions on the free movement of capital. ANA quotes Mr Tagaroulias, representative of the Greek National Bank in Cyprus, who states that, while this problem "will be definitively solved with the accession of Cyprus to the EU", the Bank hopes to find a more rapid solution.
*** Baltic: Eleven countries bordering the Baltic, at a summit meeting held last week in Kolding, Denmark, argued for earlier integration of Poland and the three Baltic republics into the European Union and asserted that the region could become "a leading area of growth in the Europe of the new millennium". Chancellor Schröder observed that the importance of regional cooperation in the Baltic must be "better perceived" by the European Commission and be considered as important as cooperation with the Mediterranean countries, for instance.
*** Ukraine: Some 80% of Ukrainians participated in Sunday's referendum (50% participation was required for the result to be valid), voting "yes" by an overwhelming majority to the four questions asked (80% to 90%, depending on the question). The questions concerned enlargement of the powers of President Kutchma, who will now be entitled, among other things, to dissolve Parliament if this body fails to adopt the budget, for instance. The legality of the referendum was challenged not only by the Ukraine opposition, but also abroad.
*** IMF: The Institute of International Finance, which represents the world's principal financial institutions, announced last week that the International Monetary Fund should consult the different financial institutions more closely and called on IMF officials to boost dialogue with these institutions.
*** Council of Europe: With its adoption last week of the report by Czech Conservative Cyril Svoboda, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe requested the creation of a general judicial authority to ensure the uniform interpretation and application of the 175 Council of Europe conventions. The Assembly noted that the increase in the number of member countries is such that it is now more difficult to speak of a common legal tradition and that the creation of such an authority has become a necessity.
*** Telecommunications: ECTA (European Competitive Telecommunications Association) has appointed Philip Evins, formerly International Vice-President of AIIM, as Managing Director. Kevin Power, President of ECTA (which represents a broad range of telecommunications industries), welcomed the decision.