Brussels, 17/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Following its meeting, this Wednesday in Strasbourg, the Commission handed the political mandate to Pascal Lamy to discuss with the Council of Ministers a "detail tuning" of the "everything but arms" initiative in view of its adoption, as soon as possible. The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU 15, which awaited the announcement of an amended proposal to finalise the agenda of the next General Affairs session (22/01) preferred postponing, to a future date, the examination of this plan opening the Union markets to all products originating from the 48 poorest countries in the world, noted a diplomatic source. Work could now make progress at the level of the relevant Council bodies until the ministerial session of 26 and 27 February, when Pascal Lamy will be able to use the margin of manoeuvre obtained from the College. These directives, more flexible than a proposal amended in good and due form, will allow him to explore possible responses to the fears of the Fifteen, nearly half of which (Mediterranean countries, Germany and Austria) are highly concerned about the impact that the initiative will have on sugar, rice and bananas. The changes that the Commission is willing to grant at this stage would somewhat strengthen the transition provision already foreseen for these three particularly sensitive products, and in particular: the transitional periods will be prolonged by two years until 2006 in the case of bananas and, for sugar and rice, postponed until 2006, when gradual liberalisation over two years will begin. "By then", that is until 2006 or possibly 2008, imports of sugar and rice from the less advanced countries could also be made a quota system. According to convergent sources, the Swedish Presidency is interested and the European Commission is still just as determined to move forward, nurturing the hope of winning the General Affairs Council's "go-ahead" next month. It has kept one card up its sleeve should the initiative be persistently blocked, that of returning before the ministers with a formally amended proposal calling for a qualified majority verdict.
Commissioner Lamy assures Parliament of lack of serious threats of inflow of "sensitive products" into EU
Speaking before the Development Committee, meeting on the fringe of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, on Tuesday evening, Commissioner Pascal Lamy considered that the "everything except arms" initiative had, on the whole, been well received, even though it had led to "certain concerns and questions in the Council and Parliament". While recognising that there were "sensitive products" (sugar, rice and bananas: Ed.), for which there were difficulties, he assured MEPs that "there are no serious threats of the inflow" of these products into the EU and that estimates put forward by some were "very clearly exaggerated". Taking sugar as example, he explained that all the LDCs put together currently produced 2 million tonnes of sugar, or 1% of world production, and consumed 3.5 million tonnes, whereas Community production was 18 million tonnes. By increasing their exports by 30%, they could export at most a quantity of 100,000 tonnes, he said, claiming that the impact would be "negligible" in the immediate future. "100,000 tonnes of sugar, for us, is not very much; for them, it is enormous", said Lamy, adding that it was "a small step - it will not make the world turn the other way round - but not only is it necessary, it is unavoidable" as it will enable us to "exercise an effect of international training". He recalled that Chile and New Zealand had already announced that they would act like the Community once the Council had adopted the measures. Others will follow, which will allow for a critical mass to be reached.
In answer to questions from MEPs, Lamy also referred to: - the concerns of the ACP States: the Commissioner said that these essentially concerned the sugar protocol that granted them a sugar import quota by the EU at the Community price, or some three times the world price. This protocol will not be affected; - proposals to the Council: Mr. Lamy said that "there is a little less than a qualified majority in the Agriculture Council and a little over a qualified majority in the General Affairs Council; - the circumventing of rules of origin and other risks of fraud: the text foresees a "guillotine clause" through which the Commission can, directly or indirectly and without consulation with the "36 expert committees" suspend the import system, which is insufficiently dissuasive for these countries to take all the measures required to avoid frauds even if the risk remains; - the future of the CMO for sugar: "This initiative is not a torpedo carefully calibrated to find the hull of the sugar system, which is very important for the Community" and should simply coexist with the system offering the best possibilities for development to LDC; - Bananas: Mr Lamy stated: "We are in agreement with Mr Fischler on the fact that the EBA provision is controllable with a new mechanism for the importing of bananas that we are in the process of establishing".