Strasbourg, 13/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has adopted by 396 votes to 16, with 29 abstentions, the report by the President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Elmar Brok (CDU) on the progress of accession negotiations (see EUROPE yesterday p13). Very few amendments were introduced to the draft resolution containing more than 170 paragraphs and a general assessment mechanism for evaluating the efforts made by each candidate country. This second draft was prepared by 12 rapporteurs: the Luxembourg Socialist, Jacques Poos, Jürgen Schröder (CDU), Swedish Conservative, Gunilla Carlsson, Luis Queiro (UEN, Portugal), German Green, Elisabeth Schroedter, Greek Socialist Ioannis Souladakis, Ursula Stenzel (ÖVP), Jas Gawronski (Forza Italia), Dutch Liberal, Jan Wiersma, Demetrio Volcic (Democratici di Sinistra), British Conservative, Geoffrey Van Orden and British Liberal, Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne. The body of the text for this resolution will soon be published in our Europe-Documents series.
Parliament has re-affirmed its commitment to support efforts made by candidate countries and the Commission to allow the greatest number of countries to join in 2004. It is calling on Member States to not put new obstacles in the way of enlargement and asserts that no candidate country will be expected to go beyond the provisions of the Community acquis in order to be admitted to the Union. It is calling on candidate countries and Turkey, however, to continue enterprise reforms. The Parliament has also stressed that NATO enlargement can strengthen, together with development of the Common European Defence and Security Policy, security and stability on the continent (amendment of Mr Brok for EPP and Sakellariou for PES). The plenary also adopted several amendments of British Conservative, Caroline Jackson, who highlighted nuclear safety, environmental protection and food safety. The Parliament has therefore stressed that the enlargement process should not include any risks to food safety standards or European consumers. It also insisted that in the context of pending negotiations on Chapter 7 on agriculture, the acquis should be transposed, as well as measures on: external border controls, rules for protection against BSE; standards for establishing food processing; regulations on animal welfare. The Parliament has noted some important changes in public opinion in candidate countries with regard to EU accession and is calling on the European institutions and governments in candidate countries and Member States to develop their efforts to inform citizens on the accession process in a way that is "de-centralised, co-ordinated and exempt of all propaganda" (amendment by Swedish Liberal Cecilia Almström).
Parliament also adopted reports on:
- Funding: By adopting by 348 votes against 48 with 30 abstentions the report by Reimer Böge (CDU), the Parliament declared that statistics on the "indicative financial framework for enlargement" figuring in the inter-institutional agreement of 6 May 1999, "must serve as the framework for adjustment of financial perspectives when perhaps 10 new Member States join the Union in 2004". It, nevertheless, stresses that the sub-ceilings and general ceiling of section 8 (enlargement) of the budget has only an indicative character. With 358 votes for, 61 against and 12 abstentions, the Parliament is committed to the progressive integration of new Member States in the system of direct agricultural aid and points out that these direct payments are part of the acquis in force and cannot therefore be excluded from negotiations. The Parliament is agreed on the idea of allowing these countries, during the initial accession years, of linking the awarding of direct aid to the per hectare surface area of the agricultural regions that are farmed (rather than the volume of production). In the context of the implementation of structural interventions, Parliament congratulates the progressive approach proposed and stressed the need for current Member States to contribute to the structural development of the new members of the enlarged Union. It has also approved in principle, the project for setting up a significant part of the structural interventions according to the Cohesion Funds but in calculating them separately from Cohesion Funds for current Member States. Parliament considers that the accession of Central and Eastern European counties, as well as Cyprus and Malta, will mean other political tasks for the EU in the domain of external action and that the increase in the number of new Member States in relation to the financial framework will engender a larger increase that is not in proportion to administrative spending.
It also recalls that, in the general context of advantages resulting from enlargement, there could be "negative effects in certain vulnerable regions or sectors", which would call for "special EU or Member State action".
During the debate the day before, Mr Böge said he agreed with the Commission on the assurance that should be given to candidate countries whereby they cannot be net contributors to the Community budget from the date of their accession to the EU. He stressed that the Parliament wished to "create budgetary conditions allowing for enlargement of up to 10 candidates in 2004" and added: "we wish to give a signal to the Commission and the Council that adjustment of financial perspectives will be undertaken by the Parliament and the Council together at a proposal by the Commission". These three institutions should "now" discuss proposals on the development (of the financial framework) after 2006, he said. Furthermore, he urged for a simplified model of direct aid for the new Member States.
- Agriculture and SAPARD: The Parliament adopted the report by Karl Erik Olsson (ELDR, Sweden) supporting the Commission's strategy for the integration of candidate countries in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), not only concerning the progressive payment of direct aid but also the introduction of a simplified system of aid in area payments or the strengthening of funds for rural development. The Parliament considers that these countries must be able to complete this simplified aid regime with national aid, but at very strict conditions. On the subject of pre-accession aid under the Sapard programme (report by Willi Görlach of the SPD), the Parliament hopes to reach an agreement with the Council and Commission on amendments to the financial perspectives in order to thus make additional means available to rural areas for these programmes. Furthermore, he notes that some countries of Central and Eastern Europe are experiencing difficulties in creating payer bodies subject to the same criteria as the administrative structures of Member Sates, while it is a question of protecting the financial interests of the EU. He notes that some of these countries "will probably encounter great difficulties" in cofunding the Sapard programme, given that they must integrate budgetary resources initially foreseen for 2000 and 2001 into their budgets of 2002, 2003 and beyond. The Parliament calls on the Commission to make a proposal allowing the use of Sapard funds for the creation in rural areas of these countries of additional income and jobs (the request to create a new "Inpard" instrument ("Innovative Particpatory Rural Development") was not approved.
- Border regions and structural policy: With the adoption of the report by Renate Sommer (EPP-ED, Germany), the Parliament stresses with insistence the specific problems entailed by enlargement in the 23 border regions of the EU (two in Finland, eight in Germany, six in Austria, two in Italy and five in Greece). To remedy this, he mainly proposes continuing the pilot project for SMEs (in cooperation with the chambers of commerce of cross-border regions) and increased Community funds for 2002, in order to allow greater SME participation in Interreg actions. He also recommends strengthening the joint fight against the illegal trafficking of drugs and human beings, as is already the case in several crossborder regions. The Parliament, which proposes to raise the percentage of EU financing for projects that benefit from Community aid in border regions, also calls for the extension of programmes on cooperation against racism and xenophobia and the complete integration of existing programmes on cooperation in education and culture (Leonardo, Erasmus, Socrates, Youth, Culture 2000, Media Plus). The Parliament considers that the financial allocation initially proposed by the Commission under the action programme for crossborder regions (EUR 195 million) is "totally insufficient if one takes into consideration the magnitude of the task to be accomplished". He therefore welcomes the agreement reached last year between the two branches of the budgetary authority aimed at increasing this allocation by EUR 65 million over the 2002 and 2003 financial periods.
The Parliament also adopted the report by Maurizio Turco (Lista Bonino) on structural policy and the pre-accession structural policy instrument (Ispa). It trusts that the execution of Ispa funding will be clearly reinforced and raises the question of the real capacity of beneficiary countries to present the Commission with projects that are appropriate for financing. It calls on the Commission to only select projects, in future, that correspond to the national development plans and asks for the territorial approach in the transport sector to replace the idea of corridors. Furthermore, it welcomes the level of execution of Ispa credit commitments, but regrets the almost non-existent execution of payments in 2000 and 2001. Finally, the Parliament expresses concern about the fact that Hungary is on the updated list of countries or territories that do not cooperate with FATF (Financial Action Task Force on money laundering).
European Parliament Plenary Session
