European Commission

ELEVEN finance ministers from the single currency area, meeting in the Euro-11 policy coordinating group, held a discussion on recently announced budgetary packages in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. It was generally accepted, said French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, that the new Italian four-year budget plan was “markedly more reassuring” than previous programmes. EU finance ministers agreed earlier this year to allow Rome to relax its budget deficit target for 1999 to 2.4% of gross domestic product from 2.0% due to growth being slower than expected. The Euro-11 welcomed the new Italian plan’s credible programme for spending cuts and generating a large ‘primary surplus’ (the difference between government revenues and spending once interest rate payments are stripped out). Ministers also acknowledged that the fiscal outlook in Germany had improved over recent weeks.

LABOUR and social affairs ministers agreed in principle that the average retirement age in the EU should be raised to avoid an economic slump caused by a decline in the working-age population, although it would be a matter for individual member states to decide. “Early retirement was an easy option [to fight unemployment] in the past and it has not worked,” said outgoing Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn following the meeting. “A lot of the jobs were never filled, they vanished.” Finnish Social Affairs Minister Maija Perho said early retirement schemes should be made less tempting and that flexible pension systems and training opportunities should keep people at work for longer.

Passengers stranded at Milan’s new Malpensa 2000 airport have invented a new game.

ANALYSTS are predicting that French-Belgian oil giant Total Fina will be forced to trim down its refining activities in France if its unsolicited 54-billion euro offer for French rival Elf Aquitaine is accepted.

EU transport ministers agreed at a meeting last month to provide 40 million euro for preparatory work on a European satellite navigation system known as Galileo. German policy advisor Daniel Höltgen explains the system’s benefits and how it fits into EU transport policy.

FINNISH Finance Minister Sauli Niinistö has revived German attempts to make euro-zone monetary policy-makers sing from the same hymn-sheet to avoid spooking the markets.

FINLAND has called on fellow EU governments to consider the scope for exempting mutual investment funds from a Union-wide tax on interest.

CHAMPIONS of a plan to allow EU governments to introduce lower value add tax rates for labour-intensive local services to boost job creation fear opponents are using delaying tactics to try to kill the measure.

THE US is expected to get the go-ahead from the World Trade Organisation next week to impose sanctions on 120-150 million euro of EU exports in the ongoing dispute over beef hormones.

MOROCCO will not renew its fisheries agreement with the EU, Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Mohamed Benaissa insisted in a statement this week. The accord, which expires in November, allows mainly Spanish vessels to fish in Moroccan waters in exchange for development aid and concessions on exports of tinned fish. Benaissa stressed, however, that Rabat was still prepared to negotiate with the Union.

Six months into the life of the euro, a debate is raging in those EU member states which chose to remain on the outside over whether to join any time soon. But, as Tim Jones reports, the obstacles facing pro-euro campaigners are different in each country

As the new European Parliament prepares to meet for the first time, in a fortnight, Gareth Harding assesses the fall-out from last month’s elections and the impact this will have on the assembly

When the results of the Euro-elections were announced on 13 June, the handful of people who bothered to follow the count were almost as interested in whether celebrities such as Gina Lollobrigida had been elected as in the political fall-out from the vote.

Friday 9 July

Friday 16 July

Hutchison Port Holdings will have to relinquish some of its UK holdings to gain EU regulatory approval for its plans to buy a controlling stake in Rotterdam’s largest shipping loading and unloading operation, according to EU officials and industry sources.

ENVIRONMENT ministers agreed to tighten the rules governing genetically modified organisms after a marathon negotiating session. The changes to the directive which lays down the approval procedure for new products (90/220) will now be discussed by the European Parliament, with final agreement not expected until next year. EU officials said afterwards that although ministers had stopped short of supporting French and Greek calls for a formal moratorium on new GM products, in practice approvals were likely to be suspended until the new rules have been agreed and implemented, probably in 2002. Under the proposals agreed by ministers, companies making GM products would have to reapply for licences every ten years, new risk assessment rules would be introduced to monitor scientific evidence and products containing more than a certain percentage of GM ingredients would have to be labelled as “containing” GMOs.

THE incoming Finnish presidency has drawn up a series of wide-ranging plans to fulfil its pledge to open up the EU’s decision-making process to greater public scrutiny.

CULTURE ministers formally adopted the Culture 2000 programme, having reached provisional agreement on the details of the new scheme in May. The programme, which will run from 2000-2004, is aimed at supporting major cultural projects with either a European or an international aspect, cooperation agreements among member states such as student exchange programmes and specific measures to improve social integration, including training to boost employment opportunities. The programme includes funding for the EU Youth Orchestra, the European Opera Centre in Manchester and money for education, conferences and publications.

INCOMING European Commission President Romano Prodi is considering the appointment of an independent panel to vet the career plans of his departing team-members.

GERMANY’S embattled post office is likely to win regulatory clearance next week for the latest scalp in a long line of foreign acquisitions – but with a warning attached, according to official and industry sources.

BRITISH and Spanish negotiators are within reach of a deal over the legal powers of Gibraltar’s authorities which would unblock long-awaited EU laws governing company mergers and bankruptcies.

BRITISH officials will try to convince EU regulators next week to approve the subsidies promised by the UK government to persuade German carmaker BMW to invest more in its Rover plant.

THE incoming Finnish presidency has vowed to push for swift agreement on EU-wide car recycling measures despite German intransigence over the issue.