Brief items for which space was lacking in earlier editions
***Greece/Cyprus: Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash stated last week that he would be willing to go to Athens to meet Greek Foreign Minister Georges Papandreou, who replied by saying he would be happy to meet Mr Denktash "when both of us as European citizens, citizens of the European Union, would be able to cross Cyprus from one end to the other, without artificial or other obstacles".
*** EU/United Kingdom: Peter Mandelson, Britain's Northern Ireland Minister (who is very close to Tony Blair), said at a conference in London that he wished the European Union in general and the Commission in particular would show "more personality, more leadership".
*** EP/Charter of Fundamental Rights: MEP Ingo Friedrich (CSU), in a statement outlining what Edmund Stoiber's party expects of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, stated that work on the Charter must not culminate surreptiously in a European constitution. Adding that the European project needs public support, he insisted on respect for the cultural autonomy of the regions, which he believes shoulder a large measure of responsibility for European integration.
*** EP/Carinthia: At the initiative of MEP Michl Ebner (EPP, Italy, representing Upper Adige), a delegation representing the Slovenian minority in Carinthia (the Land headed by Jörg Haider) last week visited Brussels, where it held meetings at the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages and with Commission officials responsible for the Interreg III programme.
*** EP/Taïwan: MEP Brigitte Langenhagen (CDU), EP observer in the March presidential elections in Taiwan, has welcomed the democratic nature of the elections that brought to power the opposition candidate and, for the first time in the history of the country, a woman Vice-President.
*** EP/Regional policy: MEP Margie Sudre (RPR), Regional Councillor for Réunion, has been named rapporteur for implementation of Article 229 (2) of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which provides a new legal basis from which "to update and rationalise Europe's strategy for the sustainable development" of the very remote regions (French overseas departments, Canary Islands, Azores and Madeira). A press statement indicates that the future of these regions "will be determined, in large measure, by the success of the strategy developed in the opinion by the European Parliament" (the opinion concerns a paper adopted by the Commission on 14 March last).
*** Greece/Turkey: Twenty-two Greek and Turkish mayors from the frontier administrative divisions of Evros and Edirne have established cooperation with a view to joint participation in European economic, social and cultural programmes. The mayors have expressed the intention of creating a "Euroregion" associating their two administrative divisions.
*** Council of Europe/Social rights: The European Social Charter's Committee of Social Rights (Council of Europe) has examined the reports submitted by a number of countries -Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Norway and Iceland- on implementation of the rights established by the European Social Charter (the 1961 Charter, revised in 1996, is a complementary text on social rights to the European Convention on Human Rights). Out of 372 cases examined, the Committee identified 100 not in conformity with the Charter and requested further information in 48 cases (the Committee examined how the countries concerned respect the right to work, the right to organise and collective action, the right to social security, the right to social and medical assistance, the right of families to protection and the rights of migrants).
*** UN/Poverty: Belgian Socialist Senator Anne-Marie Lizin has been re-appointed for two years as special rapporteur on poverty for the UN Commission on Human Rights, a post she has held since 1998 (Mrs Lizin has also been MEP and Minister for European Affairs).
*** Belgium/Diplomacy: Belgian diplomat Alfred Cahen has died at age 70. He joined the diplomatic service in 1962, serving as Political Director at the Foreign Ministry, Secretary General of the WEU (from 1985 to 1989, when the Western European Union still had its seat in London) and Belgian Ambassador to France.
*** Turkey: The parties of the coalition government in Turkey (Prime Minister Ecevit's Democratic Left Party, the Nationalist Action Party and the Motherland Party) have decided to support the candidacy of Ahmet Necdet Sezer, President of the Constitutional Court, as possible successor to President of the Republic Suleyman Demirel.