Brussels, 20/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Economic and Social Committee (ESC) is to meet in plenary session on 25 and 26 April in Brussels under the chairmanship of Göke Frerichs. As planned, Jos Chabert, President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), will explain the attitude of the CoR's institutional affairs committee which, in a resolution, had regretted the attribution by the Nice Treaty of the same number of seats to the CoR and to the ESC (see EUROPE of 6 April, p.17). Discussions will focus on the European Commission's White Paper on governance, EU enlargement, economic and social cohesion, and access to the market of goods transport by road in the EC.
The Committee will be called upon to adopt five own initiative opinions on: 1) the development of human resources in the Western Balkans (rapporteur: Giorgios Sklavounos, Various Interests, Greece); 2) the White Paper on governance: "organised civil society and European governance: the Committee's contribution to the White Paper" (rapporteur: Anne-Marie Sigmund, Chair of the Various Interests Group, Austria; co-rapporteur: José Rodriguez Garcia Caro, Employers, Spain); 3) EU enlargement: "the challenge faced by candidate countries of fulfilling the economic criteria for accession" (Bruno Vever, Employers, France); 4) the employment and social situation in the CEEC (Eva Belabed, Workers, Austria); 5) the second report on economic and social cohesion (Campbell Christie, Workers, United Kingdom).
The Committee is also expected to take a stance on the Commission's legislative proposals or communications, namely: 1) solvency margin requirements for non-life insurance undertakings (two opinions for which the rapporteur is Robert Pelletier, Employers, France, and co-rapporteur Jean-Louis Vaucoret, Various Interests, France); 2) restrictions on the marketing and use of certain dangerous substances/pentabromodiphenylether (Sergio Colombo, Workers, Italy); 3) access to the market in the carriage of goods by road within the Community to and from the territory of a Member State or passing across the territory of one or more Member States as regards a uniform Driver Attestation (Dethmer Kielman, Employers, Netherlands); 4) common market organisation in the hops sector (Adalbert Kienle, Employers, Germany); 5) improving the VAT system in the context of the internal market (KennethWalker, Employers, United Kingdom); 6) return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State - exports of cultural goods (two opinions by rapporteur Mario Sepi, Workers, Italy); 7) support system for producers of certain arable crops (Jean-Claude Sabin, Various Interests, France); 8) common market organisation in the beef and veal sector (Adalbert Kienle, Employers, Germany); 9) simplifying, modernising and harmonising the conditions laid down for invoicing in respect of VAT (Kenneth Walker, Employers, UK); 10) coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts: - public supply contracts and public works contracts - and in the water, energy and transport sectors (two opinions presented by Bo Green, Employers, Denmark); 11) health rules concerning animal by-products (not intended for human consumption) - health rules concerning animal by-products (two opinions by Leif Erland Nielsen, Various Interests, Denmark); 12) procedures in Member States for granting and withdrawing refugee status (Vitor Melicias, Various Interests, Portugal).