Brussels, 07/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - After a brief meeting focussing mainly on energy taxation, the ECOFIN Council drew to a close on Tuesday afternoon in Brussels. As expected, it endorsed political agreement on the directive on market manipulation and insider dealing (see EUROPE of 3 May, p.7) and the directive on financial conglomerates (see below). The Council adopted a conclusions documents for the Latin American Summit on 17/18 May which EUROPE will be returning to.
Commissioner Frits Bolkestein gave a report-back on negotiations with third countries to get them to adopt measures on savings income "equivalent" to those implemented in the EU in the savings tax package that should be adopted by the end of the year. He was disappointed that the launch of negotiations with Switzerland was in deadlock. Switzerland is calling on the Council of the EU to adopt negotiating mandates beforehand on a whole series of other subjects of negotiations, presented by the Commission on 9 April. Bolkestein told ministers that the agreements with Switzerland on sharing information would probably not result in an ideal outcome and told reporters that "equivalent" didn't mean "equal". Negotiations are underway, however, with the US. A high level meeting will be held on 15 May and Bolkestein is expected to visit Washington at the end of the month. Negotiations are also underway with Andorra, Monaco and San Marino. Liechtenstein has adopted its negotiating mandate and the UK has expressed optimism about being able to sign an agreement with the Channel Islands; stressing that the government's draft budget set out penalties for the Channel Islands if they failed to abide by the European code of conduct in this domain.
Over dinner, the ministers discussed state guarantees for war and terrorism insurance for airlines. The exceptional aid scheme runs out on 31 May and the Commission ad hoc group is expected to assess the issue in the light of decisions taken by Washington for US airlines, pointed out the President of the Council, Rodrigo Rato.
Without going into the detail of recommendations for specific countries, the ministers welcomed the European Commission's document on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) for 2002, placing particular emphasis on the following general priorities - maintaining and strengthening the macroeconomic framework; promoting more and better quality jobs (and making the job market more dynamic); promoting conditions for a surge in productivity; and promoting sustainable development in the interest of future generations. Commissioner Michaele Schreyer presented the Preliminary Draft Budget for 2003. Ministers mentioned the Council's budget guidelines issued at the beginning of 2002. Some delegations criticised the trend to make systematic use of the flexibility instrument for funding the EU's structural expenditure and called on the Commission to show restraint with regard to payment credits.