Brussels, 13/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference, the German President of the EPP/ED Group in the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering (CDU) made an assessment of the first year of the current legislature. Placing special emphasis on the importance of the framework-agreement on relations between Parliament and the European Commission, he considered that his group had had successes since the European elections of June 1999. He also placed emphasis on the need to complete the institutional reform at the European Council of Nice and respect the 2003 deadline for preparing the Union to welcome new Member States.
Speaking of the Austrian issue, Mr Pöttering expressed surprise about the remarks made by French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin who, during the first day of French EU Presidency, said that no action would be undertaken on the subject of Austria even if the report by the "Three Wise Persons" were positive. It is not possible to adopt such an attitude, he said, considering that this amounted to subordination of the EU interests to the French political situation. The Danish referendum in September on the euro could prove negative simply because of the interference of large countries in the internal affairs of the smaller countries, said Mr Pöttering, before urging for the immediate lifting of the bilateral sanctions against Austria if the report from the "wise" were positive.