Brussels, 03/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on 18/19 September the European Economic and Social Committee will hold its last plenary session chaired by Göke Frerichs, ahead of the renewal of the ESC's four year term (new Members will start work at the October plenary). The September session will be characterised at 17: 00 hrs on Wednesday by the presence of the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, who will discuss the new ESC/EP relations and current events in Europe and world-wide.
There are quite a few subjects on the agenda for the meeting. The ESC is likely to adopt six Own Initiative Opinions on: 1) Transport/enlargement (Rapporteur: Retureau from the Workers' Group, France); 2) Trends, structures and international mechanisms on the international capital markets (Sepi, Workers' Group, Italy); 3) The future of mountainous regions in the EU (Bastian, Various Interests' Group, France); 4) Pre-accession financial aid - PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD (Walker, Employers' Group, UK); 5) Latvia and Lithuania on the road to accession (Westerlund, Workers' Group, Sweden); and 6) Lisbon - a renewed vision (Morgan, Employers' Group, UK). The ESC will also adopt a supplementary Own Initiative Opinion on the impact of enlargement on EMU (Vever, Employers' Group, France).
The ESC will give its opinions of the Commission's legislative proposals and Communications, viz: 1) Human and veterinary medicines, a European agency and a Community code (Fuchs, Various Interests' Group, Germany); 2) Traditional plant-based medicines (Braghin, Employers' Group, Italy); 3) Future of tourism (Liverani, Workers' Group, Italy); 4) Life sciences and biotech (Bedossa, Various Interests' Group, France); 5) Patentability of computer implemented inventions (Retureau): 6) Safety of EU railways (Konz, Workers' Group, Luxembourg); 7) Unfair competition from non-EU airlines (Green, Employers' Group, Denmark); 8) Safer internet use (Davidson, Various Interests' Group, UK); 6) Multiannual energy action programme 2002-2003 (Morgan); 10) Additives in animal feed (Scully, Various Interests' Group, Ireland); 11) Thematic soil protection strategy (Nilsson, Various Interests' Group, Sweden); 12) Producer organisations (de las Heras Cabanas, Various Interests' Group, Sweden); 13) Funding the Common Agricultural Policy (Strasser, Various Interests' Group, Austria); 14) Preventing money laundering through customs cooperation (Florio, Workers' Group, Italy); 15) Green Paper on returns policy (Pariza Castanos, Workers' Group, Spain); 16) Temporary workers' working conditions (Le Nouail-Marlière, Workers' Group, France); Recognition of professional qualifications (Ehnmark, Workers' Group, Sweden); 18) Implementing family law decisions (Caroll, Employers' Group, Ireland), co-rapporteurs: Retureau (Employers) and Burnel (Various Interests' Group, France); 19) Cyprus - information report (Cassina, Workers' Group, Italy).