Brief items for which space was lacking in earlier editions
*** Treaty of Nice/Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, reporting on the Nice European Council to his country's House of Representatives, said that Spain, which arrived at the summit with around 20% fewer votes than the big countries and 27% more than the next in line, reduced the gap with big countries by around 7% and increased it up to 48% with average-sized states. During debate, representatives of nationalist parties called for dialogue, during preparation of the post-Nice period, on the division of powers between the Autonomous Communities and the Spanish State, but Mr Aznar replied that debate on the sharing of powers "affects only the EU and Member States", whereas this breakdown within each State "depends on the Constitution" and comes under "sovereignty".
*** Greece/Balkans: In an interview published last week by Le Monde and focusing in large measure on the impact of Greek entry into the euro area, Greek Economy and Finance Minister Yannos Papantoniou declared that Greece "is a regional power" and that its projects in the Balkans "are not lacking in ambition", given that it shares with the Balkan countries "important historic experiences … and economic ties, since Byzantium". Asked about relations between Greece and Turkey and the military spending that is adding to the Greek public debt, Mr Papantoniou declared: "As Finance Minister, I do not hesitate to say that I am in favour of a decrease in military spending, but as a Greek politician, I am rather reserved; (...) as long as there is still tension between Greece and Turkey, military spending is necessary, unfortunately".
*** EU/Arms exports/France: In an article published last week by Le Monde, Jacques Isnard states that France refused in 1999 to sell arms to 28 countries worldwide, of which 13 in Africa, 7 in Europe (especially Central and Eastern Europe), 4 in Asia-Oceania and 4 in the Middle East. In his opinion, what "seems to have motivated the French refusals to sell weapons is essentially application of the European code of conduct adopted by the Fifteen in 1998". Mr Isnard said France notified its EU partnets of 62 rejected applications from 28 countries (according to the code, a Union country that rejects an arms order must inform the other Member States).
*** EP/ECB: German Social Democrat Christa Randzio-Plath, Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, welcomed publication for the first time of economic forecasts by the European Central Bank. These projections were published in the ECB's monthly bulletin of December (addressing MEPs, ECB President Wim Duisenberg nevertheless made a point of underlining the limits of this exercise). According to Mrs Randzio-Plath, these economic projections by ECB staff should, "as soon as possible, become the economic forecasts of the ECB Board itself, as in other countries".
*** UN/Afghanistan: The United Nations Security Council, adopting last week Resolution 1333 (with China and Malaysia abstaining), has reinforced sanctions against the Taliban in power in Kabul and demanded that they close terrorist training camps on their territory and hand over presumed terrorist Ussama ben Laden. The Security Council imposed an embargo on arms, a tougher air embargo, a ban on travel outside of Afghanistan and the closure of Taliban representative offices abroad. At its December session, the European Parliament called once again for tougher sanctions against the Taliban and their diplomatic isolation.
*** Kosovo: Hans Haekkerup, who will replace Bernard Kouchner from 15 January at the head of the UN interim administration in Kosovo, said in New York that he hoped a certain form of autonomy in the province "will make it possible to defuse the situation and pave the way to a definitive peaceful settlement, though it will not happen overnight". Mr Hokkerup made an undertaking to maintain close contacts with all of Kosovo's communities, including the Serbs, "to ensure that they are a full part of the process".
*** Greece/Turkey: A delegation from the Greek Foreign Ministry led by European Affairs Secretary General Ilias Plaskovitis participated in the fifth meeting with a high-level delegation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Antalya (Turkey), as part of the process launched by the two Ministers, Georges Papandreou and Ismail Cem, to establish a better climate of confidence. The Greek press agency ANA reportd that the two delegations decided to cooperate in the training of Turkish civil servants in economic, customs and banking issues.