Brussels, 28/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The agenda of the plenary session next week will hardly change as far as the main themes are concerned: - the end-result of the Spanish Presidency, the presentation of the programme of the Danish Presidency, a debate with the President of the European Central Bank, debates on food safety and the "Seveso" Directive (see EUROPE of 27 June, p.14). The declaration by the European Commission on Tuesday afternoon will cover its communication and its action plan on the social accountability of companies (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.12). The only addition is that the Commission will issue a statement on Somalia, and not on Tunisia, on Thursday afternoon. Furthermore, the discussions on current affairs will concern Angola, Zimbabwe, human rights, and democracy in Afghanistan. Also, the Gillig report on social governance and globalisation will be discussed on Thursday morning instead of Monday, and the Van Lancker report on health and sexual rights on Tuesday instead of Thursday.
On Wednesday, as planned, Council and Commission will issue statements on the consequences for transatlantic relations of measures aimed at ensuring exemption of American peacekeepers from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Tribunal that will judge those responsible for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The problem is a topical one as the Court will be formally established in The Hague on 1 July, and because the United States has threatened to no longer take part in UN peacekeeping operations if, next Sunday at midnight (New York time), when the SFOR mandate is renewed, the UN does not introduce into the mandate of the NATO Stabilisation Force in Bosnia a formula that ensures US troops do not run the risk of being taken before the Court in The Hague. Washington calls for a passage to be included specifying that the personnel of the countries taking part in peacekeeping operations of this kind will benefit from immunity against the risk of being arrested, detained and judged for acts committed in the context of these operations, even once their participation in the operations in question has ceased. (The Human Rights Watch organisation was extremely critical of this attempt by the United States to weaken the future court. Its director, Kenneth Roth, called on France, the United Kingdom and the other members of the Security Council to "defend the integrity" of the new court).
Two reports will certainly give rise to heated debate. They are:
The Van Lancker report on health and sexual and reproductive rights, that the EPP-ED group would have liked, with the support of the UEN Group, to refer back to committee. Our group considers that it is not up to the EU to settle ethical issues, the spokesperson of the EPP-ED group told the press on Friday, while the spokesperson for the Greens/EFA Group pointed out that "we are in favour of legal abortion and the morning-after pill".
The Trakatellis report, which was amended in the environment committee in order to bring down the threshold beyond which the accidental presence of GMO authorised in the Union must be indicated on the labelling (see EUROPE of 1/11 June, p.16) from 1%, as the European Commission proposed, to 0.5%. Mr Trakatellis voted in committee against his own report, while the Greens/EFA are pleased with the result, and a spokesperson of the Liberals said that his group does not have a problem with a 0.5% threshold.
The plenary will settle a conflict between the legal and environment committees
Parliament Spokesman David Harley told the press on Friday that the plenary will give its opinion, on Wednesday, on the conflict between the legal committee chaired by the Forza Italia member, Giuseppe Gargani, and the environment committee, chaired by British Conservative Caroline Jackson. The two chairmen managed to come to an agreement on the question of knowing which of the two committees was competent for the Directive on liability for environmental damage. The affair was taken before the conference of committee chairpersons, which did not manage to come to an agreement either. Three EP vice-presidents - Provan (EPP-Ed), Imbeni (PES) and Onesta (Greens/EFA) - were then invited to suggest a solution, and they unanimously chose the committee on the environment. The Conference of Presidents (of political groups), however, overthrew this verdict, which is now being challenged by Caroline Jackson, who is calling for the plenary to give its ruling. This is a strange and unusual situation, admitted David Harley, who remarked in passing that, from next Friday on, the amendments of the Parliament's Rules of Procedure, set out in the Corbett report, will enter into force.