Brief items for which space was lacking in our earlier editions
*** EU/France/Spain: France and Spain, announced Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar at the Franco-Spanish Summit in Santander, share responsibility for being driving forces and major players in Europe, and President Chirac observed that Spain is "increasingly" a "major partner" for France. Mr Aznar, who fears that enhanced cooperation could threaten the unity of the single market, was reassured by Mr Jospin, who stated that it should not compromise the Community acquis.
*** EMU/Denmark: Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, in a debate in Parliament, warned against rejection of the single currency in the referendum on 28 September, asserting that there would be negative consequences, "notably for the weaker strata of society" and that Denmark would lose all its influence in Europe. "Saying no is tantamount to dropping your car insurance because you've become a good driver and think you don't need it any more", he exclaimed (alluding to the sound economy in Denmark).
*** EU/Sweden: A report by Clas Heinegaard drafted for the Statskontoret, the body that scrutinises the Swedish Government, states that an ever larger part of the EU's legislative work is being carried out by committees rather than by the Council of Ministers or the European Parliament and that Swedish authorities are not exercising sufficient scrutiny over this work.
*** EU/India: The EU and India will be signing at their summit on 28 June in Lisbon a joint declaration on "The Prospects for Relations between India and the European Union in the 21st Century", announced the Indian Foreign Minister during the visit of a representative of the Portuguese Presidency to New Delhi.
*** EU/Mediterranean: The Directors General for Energy of the 27 countries participating in the Barcelona process (the Fifteen plus their 12 Mediterranean partners) met for the third time in Granada and discussed with representatives of the gas, oil and electricity industries the impact for the region of reform of the energy sector in Europe.
*** EP/Education: Member of the EP Neil MacCormick (Scottish National Party, Greens) last week held a press conference with several former "Lettori" (foreign language assistants) in Italy who had been sacked under debatable conditions. The purpose was to draw attention to the discrimination on grounds of nationality against the "Lettori", as reiterated by the Court of Justice in 1993. A press release states that the "Lettori" feel cheated by the European Commission, which dropped its complaints in this matter and "accepted a second-class feeble (and illegal) settlement by the Italian state". The press release points out that 463 "Lettori" are in litigation over their status.
*** EP/Commission: British Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff, in a written question, asked President Prodi, in his capacity as a member of the European Council, what he thought of the statement made by Mr de Boissieu, Deputy Secretary General of the EU Council, to the EP Committee on Constitutional Affairs, that the European Council "never read the Presidency's Conclusions and could not explain them". It is Commission policy not to comment on the internal affairs of the other Community institutions, replied Mr Prodi.
*** EP/Land mines: Luisa Morgantini (United Left, Italy), after a meeting at the European Parliament with Jody Williams, of the International Campaign for the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1997, stated that new impetus needs to be given to the process of eliminating these deadly mines, new concrete initiatives to help victims are needed and that pressure must be put on countries like Finland and Greece, which have neither signed nor ratified the anti-mine treaty. She also observed that mine-clearing companies, in particular in the United States, sometimes use mine clearance to "perfect military technologies".
*** EP/Mobile phones: Dr Charles Tannock, British Conservative Member of the European Parliament, has asked the European Commission to set restrictions on the use of mobile phones by children, given the risks to health of their use by children. Dr Tannock pointed out that brain tumours in the Western UK have doubled in the last 10 years for reasons that are as yet unclear and insisted on the necessity of an evaluation of the risks involved in the use of mobile phones.
*** Council of Europe: The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities has elected Spaniard Llibert Cuatrecasas (EPP) as its new President while Austrian Conservative Herwig van Staa, Mayor of Innsbruck, will stay on as President of the Chamber of Local Authorities and Finnish Social Democrat Risto Koivisto, Member of the Executive Committee of the Regional Council of Tampere, was elected President of the Chamber of Regional Authorities.