Luxembourg, 09/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - Presenting the results of the General Affairs Council to the press Monday evening, Louis Michel declared: "We devoted time to the American retaliation and Afghanistan but we also discussed many other issues on the agenda at length", and, having summarised the conclusions on Afghanistan (see yesterday's EUROPE, pages 5 to 7), he stressed the progress made in preparing the future institutional reform. Mr. Michel also welcomed the respect of the road map for accession negotiations, and said that Commissioner Verheuhgen had shown himself confident despite the outcome of the latest elections in Poland. Asked about the role attributed to the former King of Afghanistan, Zaher Shah in the "post-Taliban era", according to the plan put forward by France, he considered that "it would not be credible for us to adopt a scenario now". In answer to a question on the attitude of the Union were the United States, as it has hinted, to strike other countries linked to terrorism, Mr. Michel replied that the EU would be "coherent" with itself, and Commissioner Chris Patten said that they had to stick to reality and not stray into hypothetical scenarios.
In its conclusions on the Western Balkans, the Council launches an appeal on the Parliament of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to approve, as quickly as possible, all the constitutional and legislative provisions of the Framework-Agreement of 13 August, and to find an effective solution to the problem of the amnesty of rebels and ensure that the process of the return of the security forces to the areas controlled by the rebels be co-ordinated with representatives of the international community. The Council repeated that the EU remained determined to play an active role in implementing that agreement. It took note of the Commission's proposal aimed at extending the geographic competence of the European Agency for Reconstruction to FYROM (that the EP approved last week) and agreed turn to this proposal rapidly, while stressing that EU assistance was tied to a satisfactory conclusion of the process of constitutional revision. Under these conditions, the Council notes that the conditions for convening a donor conference have not yet been met. In addition, it: - recalls the importance of a massive participation of all communities in the 17 November elections in Kosovo; - insists in favour of full implementation of the Covic Plan for southern Serbia and a constructive and substantive dialogue between Serbia and Montenegro on new arrangements for relations between the components of the Federation, acceptable to all parties. The Council also approved: - the brief of the "EU-Albania Consultative Task Force"; - a common position to lift the ban on supplying the FRY with equipment that could be used for purposes of internal repression or terrorism (imposed by a 1998 common position).
The Council also adopted conclusions on Eritrea (see below) and on the region of the Great African Lakes and Zimbabwe (EUROPE will return). Ministers had an exchange of views with Commissioner Pascal Lamy on preparing the Ministerial Conference of Doha and the Commission communication on the promotion of fundamental labour standards in the context of globalisation (see EUROPE of 5 October). The Council will pursue its work on 29 and 30 October. Another exchange of views concerned the situation of shipbuilding and the proposal for a temporary defence mechanism faced with South Korean dumping. Speaking to the press, Mr. Lamy said that Luxembourg and Ireland had rallied around Spain, Germany and Italy in the camp of countries in favour of the authorisation of certain aid to European shipyards, but that the situation had not moved much since last July, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland continuing to be opposed, while France is not all that in favour but has not, like other States, taken a final stance. The Council instructed Coreper to continue examining the technical aspects of the issue.
Finally, Denmark said that, during its Presidency (second half of 2002) it would renounce its right to exercise the Presidency over affairs with defence implications. This Presidency will be assumed by Greece.