Articles for which space could not be found last week
*** EU/Austria/enlargement: Following an incident (albeit described as "minor" by the International Atomic Energy Agency) in the Czech power plant, in Temelin, just fifty kilometres from Austria, Wilhelm Molterer, Austrian Environment Minister, last week called on the Czech Republic to suspend tests in the new plant. According to his spokesperson, "Temelin must be one of the issues discussed in membership negotiations" for accession by the Czech Republic to the EU. Josep Pühringer, Governor of Upper Austria, went further saying that, in the face of this "provocation", Austria should threaten to block accession by the Czech Republic.
*** Danube/Romania: Petre Roman, Romania's Foreign Minister (and candidate to the presidential elections in November), swam five kilometres along the Danube on 14 August in order, he said, to "protest against the blocking of the river, which is a symbol of a united Europe". Mr Roman thus plans to increase pressure on the FRY so that it finally agrees to the operations (for which the EU has already allocated funding) necessary to clean the Danube up from debris left by bridges destroyed in NATO bombing.
*** EMU/Denmark: The executive committee of Denmark's third largest trade union is split over whether the country should adopt the single currency. Twenty-eight members of the committee are in favour, and 28 against. The Financial Times states that, according to results of a Gallup poll, 51% of the trade union members will be voting against entry to the single currency in the referendum on 28 September, and that only 39% will vote in favour. The daily points out, however, that Poul Winckler, the union's chairman, said in an interview to the daily Borsen that he is personally in favour of joining single currency. Three polls published last weekend give contradictory results: 45% in favour, 43% against; 44% in favour, 43% against; 41% against and 39% for.
*** FRY: Yugoslavia will not allow observers from member countries of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to be present at the general elections on 24 September. Foreign observers will be invited to observe the unfolding of the elections but not countries which took part in the aggression against Yugoslavia, or organisations like the OSCE which also took part, said Vice Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic.
*** EU/summer holidays: On the basis of information published by the press on the holidays of political leaders, let us cite Chancellor Schröder's departure from Mallorca (where he remained three weeks and where he met King Juan Carlos and the new Socialist leader, Rodriguez Sapatero) without having any talks with Prime Minister Aznar. El Pais highlights this information with commentary entitled "A Change of Climate". In Italy, Giuliano Amato met Tony Blair in Toscany, with whom he played a doubles match in tennis: the two heads of government beat RAI President Roberto Zaccaria and Prince Guicciardini, who owns the villa where the match was held.
*** WTO/UN: A draft report on the World Trade Organisation presented by Ugandan and Sri Lankan lawyers, Olaka-Onyango and Deepika Udagama, to the UN sub-committee on human rights, affirms that the WTO is a "nightmare" for developing countries, and calls for "radical review of the whole system of trade liberalisation". If the sub-committee, which has its seat in Geneva, approves the report, it will be presented to the annual UN Human Rights Commission in March and April 2001.
*** OECD: An independent report by Arthur Andersen, just published, stresses the obsolete and opaque nature of the budget of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The report, commissioned by the Organisation itself, does not cite any cases of fraud but denounces the lack of transparency in the OECD's financial management (above all, it points out that the budget includes 1800 different items). The document is a "good alarm signal" for the Organisation, said OECD Secretary General, Canadian Donald Johnston.
*** EP/Greece: Vassili Ephremidis died last week in Athens, aged 85. A member of the Greek Communist Party (KKK), he served as MEP without interruption from 1981 until the European elections of June 1999.
*** Audiovisual: On 1 September this year, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe will appoint Wolfgang Closs as Director General of the European Audiovisual Observatory, to replace Niels Klevjer Aas, who returns to his duties at the Norwegian cinematographic institute. Mr Closs, who is specialised in European media law, was previously at the head of the Institut für Europäisches Medienrecht in Sarrebruck.