Brussels, 25/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Official Journal C176 of 24 July contains the list of members of the ECSC Consultative Committee proposed for the "Consultative Committee on Coal and Steel and Industrial Change" within the Economic and Social Committee. It also contains the resolution adopted by the ECSC Consultative Committee on the heritage of the European Coal and Steel Community, adopted unanimously during its last session on 26 June (on the subject of the expiry of the ECSC Treaty, see "A Look Behind the News" today and EUROPE yesterday and the day before yesterday).
The resolution welcomes the efforts accomplished to safeguard the achievement of the ECSC after expiry of the treaty, and especially the creation of a coal and steel research fund and the establishment, at the Economic and Social Committee, of a Consultative Committee for coal and steel and industrial change. At the same time, it expresses some concern about the means implemented for guaranteeing implementation of ECSC heritage. The Consultative Committee mainly notes that the social measures of the ECSC, mainly rehabilitation, have been phased out but not replaced by equivalent measures in the context of the EC Treaty, which can pose serious problems for future restructuring, mainly in candidate countries. Furthermore, the Consultative Committee calls on social partners to be involved in international negotiations on sustainable and controllable reductions at world level of steel surplus capacities, negotiations that must be speeded up and continued within the WTO and OECD.