Barcelona, 15/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 15 March in Barcelona at the third springtime summit focusing on structural reform,, Finance Ministers held discussions, for the first time, with the European Commission and in particular, with Romano Prodi, Commissioner Pedro Solbes and candidate country counterparts. This followed their traditional exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament and EU Heads of State and Governments (see other news). The European Council was also attended by Yugoslav President Kostunica and Montenegro President, Djukanovic, due to the success of CFSP representative, Javier Solana, who had sought to avoid the splitting up of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. During the evening, the EU gave the green light to the Presidency declaration, stressing the need of taking advantage of recent signs of hope for re-launching the Middle East peace process (see other news). Mention was also made to the situation in Iraq. Javier Solana is expected to present his report on reform of the Council, the ratification of the Treaty of Nice (requested by the Taoiseach and Berty Ahern).
Gas and energy liberalisation: Josep Piqué counting on the "most ambitious conclusions as possible"
- Lionel Jospin sets out definition of public balance for Euro-zone and creation
of world environmental organisation
The work of the European Council of Barcelona on Friday morning concentrated on the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, but the hour of truth, such as that for the liberalisation of the gas and electricity markets timetable, was not expected until the evening. The President of the EU Council, Josep Piqué, declared to the press that the Spanish Presidency expects to soon progress to the "as ambitious as possible" conclusions, and that it was also counting on an agreement at the Summit on the "list of concrete commitments", concerning the competitiveness of the European economy, the strengthening of the European social model and sustainable development. On the question of France's refusal to accept total liberalisation of its energy markets, German Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, declared to the press that political understanding for such difficulties was necessary. This was the case for all countries, he stated in a direct reference to the German issue of the Landesbaken or other Member States with rail transport. The result of Barcelona will "certainly be the gradual opening up", Mr Eichel believed.
Morning discussions obtained a consensus on the necessity of re-launching the Lisbon process, which has not moved forward sufficiently. Everyone was agreed that the different aspects of the process should be strengthened. The President of the Council, Josep Piqué, indicated to a press conference on Friday afternoon that he was, extremely pleased, "with the convergent attitudes of the candidate countries". He stressed that the reforms that they were seeking were very important for the candidate countries and would allow them to adapt their economies to the demands of globalisation. Mr Piqué also indicated that the European Council had touched on external aspects of the Strategy, with a view to the Monterrey Summit next week and that of Johannesburg in September. He welcomed the "quantified compromise with a timetable" in line for the Monterrey Summit, which Member States had agreed (see EUROPE yesterday page 8). Mr Piqué asserted that at Monterrey they wanted a "Maximum Agreement" and pointed out that the EU was the main public aid donor to world development and that the EU, was "Up to playing a leading role in eradicating poverty" in the world.
During the first round table talks of the day, José Maria Aznar recognised that the concrete results of the Lisbon Strategy had been uneven and that not everything had been done to respect the agreed timetable, which meant that efforts would have to be doubled. President Prodi repeated that the cost of not realising the single market could reach EUR 15 billion (see EUROPE 14 March page 4 on the subject of the expectations that he expressed during a press conference before the Summit). He specifically raised the issue of the modernisation of the European social model (and in this context, the issue of immigration), keeping public finance healthy and the "perfectability" of the European transport system. The Economics and Finance Commissioner, Pedro Solbes pointed out that for the majority of candidate countries; administrative reform, the implementation of market mechanisms, privatisation of state companies have been at the core of the agenda of the reform process (whereas Turkey by many accounts) and Cyprus and Malta are market economies that are functioning well. Many candidate countries are in a post transition phase, as functioning young market economies, asserted the Commissioner, whilst recognising that privatisation remains an issue in a limited number of industries (energy, transport, telecommunictations) and the poductivity gap remains more than these countries spend on R&D - an average of 0.8% of GDP compared to 1.9% in current Member States. Pedro Solbes also regretted the increase in unemployment in many candidate coiuntries, where it had reached a level of 15%-20% and believed that the participation of these countries in the Lisbon Strategy consituted an incentive to push the necessary reforms to accede to the Union even further. One of Mr Solbes' conclusions was that the unfinished structural reforms agenda focuses too often in the same sectors in current and future Member States and: network industries, labour markets, financial markets and company competitiveness. In his speech, President Chirac placed emphasis on the need to provide solutions to the "frustrations of globalisation", and to consolidate the gap between rich and poor countries, and French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin insisted on tax harmonisation (we have to go further than the Feira package and begin work on company taxation) and the co-ordination of economic policies. The Spring Summit has to be "the place for a periodical debate" on the subject, "and for that to become a habit, I call on the Commission to make concrete proposals to the EcoFin Council on method and substance", he said, pleading in favour of "genuine ex-ante co-ordination of budgetary policies" of the countries of the euro zone and for the "joint" definition of an "aggregate public balance for the euro zone, necessary complement to the single monetary policy". Mr. Jospin also demanded "active and determined" implementation of the European social agenda and, the dimension of sustainable development in the Strategy among the objectives of the Union, as well as that of creating a World Environmental Organsisation among the European Union's perspectives
The Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, while denouncing the prevarication of the Galileo project and the Community patent, exclaimed that if progress on the Lisbon Strategy proved unsatisfactory, it would be beacause of what happened in the room today. Mr Verhofstadt hoped that the Galileo project and Community patent are expected to be discussed during the next EU Council which would finally unblock them. He also appealed for a re-evaluation of the social side of the Strategy, as he had done with the Luxembourg Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, in a joint letter. Dutch Prime Minister, Wim Kok brought up the issue of the ageing population and the sustainability of the pensions systems and made an appeal for more effort to achieve the knowledge-based society. Finnish Prime Minister, Paavo Lipponnonen stressed sustainable development, the opening up of the energy markets and the improvement of the financial markets and an issue close to his heart, development of biotechnology. Mr Lipponen asserted that, "We should think more about wasys in which we can integrate new Member States in the different sectors in order that when the time comes they will be able to apply the decisions taken to implement the Lisbon Strategy". His Swedish counterpart, Göran Persson, also stressed sustainable development, as well as the use of clean technologies and exhorted his colleagues to take the consequences of demographic ageing seiously. Tony Blair pointed out that since Lisbon, five million new jobs had been created, but that this was not enough. The British Prime Minister also pleaded for more co-ordination of economic policies.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen calls for Libon commitsments on
Council and European Council reform to be honoured
Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who will be President of the EU Summits during the second half of the year, admitted to journalists of the need to both reform the Council of Ministers and the European Council. He asserted that Heads of State and Governments had to concentrate on their work and the priority issues and stop behaving like an appeals body for dossiers that have not been solved by the Council. Mr Rasmussen said that he agreed with the Secretary General of the Council, Javier Solana, when he criticised how the Presidencies worked and supported the idea of mandating group Member State Presidency, with tenures of longer than six months. Mr Rasmussen gave his assurances that the Danish Presidency would be "business-like" and insisted on the need for a complete implmenation of the Lisbon Strategy. He explained that he was worried about the growing gap between the USA and Europe, notably on the level of technology and said that if they were to imagine becoming the most competitive economy in the world then why hadn't they been able to get an agreement over the Colmmunity patent. He admitted that in the present circumstances, it was improbable that at the Barcelona Summit they would obtain a decision on gas and electricity liberalisation, which is what Denmark was seeking.
He explained that he was worried about the growing gap between the USA and Europe, notably on the level of technology and said that if they were to imagine becoming the most competitive economy in the world then why hadn't they been able to get an agreement over the Colmmunity patent. He admitted that in the present circumstances, it was improbable that at the Barcelona Summit they would obtain a decision on gas and electricity liberalisation, which is what Denmark was seeking.
Austria wants to speed-up implementation of Lisbon Process
- "Step-up pressure on France" over energy
When speaking to the press at the end of the first working session of the European Council, Karl-Heinz Grasser, Austrian Finance Minister, said that the "signal of the Barcelona Summit" should be a clear statement by all Member states that the Lisbon Process is "still alive" and that the practical and concrete implementation of measures - already decided at Community level to make of the EU the most competitive economy by 2010 - should be "speeded-up" in all Member states. The opening up and deregulation of markets, as well as rendering labour markets flexible are preconditions to make a success of the Lisbon Process, stressed Grasser. "It is not enough to make statements of intent, but we need concrete decisions together with a precise timetable", he said. Then, all Member states must enhance implementation, in their national legislation, of measures decided in the overall framework of the process, he went on. For Mr. Grasser, it is "unacceptable" that the EU should not have a common and harmonised approach for opening up the energy markets and that Member states like France protect the monopolistic stance of their energy operators on the national market better to be able to take advantage of the opening of the other markets in Europe and engage in "cherry picking". "We must step-up the pressure on France", for it to move, in Barcelona already, in favour of accelerated liberalisation. "It is unacceptable that the world should stop just because there are elections in France and Germany", the minister added. Mr. Grasser also welcomed the EcoFin Council decision of Thursday evening of setting up an EIB credit Facility - rather than a bank as such - for the Mediterranean area. The creation of this Facility is a "wise decision", avoiding a new "very expensive" and "bureaucratic" bank, said Grasser.
Liberalisation on energy market: Lionel Jospin says that France would agree to opening up market for professionals two years after adoption of framework-directive
on services of a general economic interest
When speaking on the liberalisation of the energy market, Lionel Jospin confirmed France's stance, stating that "France can only contemplate a certain opening up to competition if strong guarantees are decided upon in Barcelona concerning, on the one hand, the reality of the openness of the market and, on the other, the place of public services". He then continued: "The reality of the openness of the market means that, in each Member state, an authority is created on sectoral regulation with a minimum threshold of powers". In addition, he stressed, national markets will have to be "truly interconnected", whereas "we are still far from there". He then insisted: "a genuine European energy policy demands an ambitious "positive" directive, that does not simply set a timetable for liberalisation, but defines a common threshold of public service obligations such as recognition of the right of access to electricity and balanced pricing", and which, moreover, leaves Member states the "possibility of imposing specific obligations beyond the common threshold, in matters, notably, of security of energy supply". Mr. Jospin went further, hoping that, beyond the energy sector, "work will actively begin on drawing up a framework-directive on services of a general economic interest that can truly consolidate the principles contained in Article 16 of the Treaty". He then concluded: "If this package of balanced guidelines is the subject of an agreement, then France could agree to the principle of opening up the electricity and gas markets for professionals two years after the adoption if the new directive".