| |
 |
|
|
 |
| |
| |
 EU Lisbon Treaty
 |
Ratification process: Hungary became the first Member State to approve the Treaty of Lisbon, by parliamentary vote, four days after the official signature of the Treaty by all Member States on 13 December. With Portugal opting for a parliamentary ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, it is now highly likely that Ireland will be the only country to hold a referendum on the issue. This referendum will most probably take place at the end of May 2008. All other EU Member States will ratify the Lisbon Treaty before the end of 2008 in their national parliaments. The French Parliament will make the necessary changes to the French Constitution on 4 February. Parliamentary ratification of the Treaty should follow rapidly.
|
to top 
Priorities of EU Presidencies 2008
|
Slovenian EU Presidency: On 1 January, Slovenia became the first Member State of the 2004 enlargement round to take up the six-month rotating Presidency of the European Union. On 16 January, Prime Minister Janez Jansa presented Slovenia's priorities to the European Parliament, emphasising five main issues:
|
| |
|
Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The successful completion of the ratification procedure in 2008;
|
| |
|
Lisbon Strategy. The second cycle of the renewed Lisbon Strategy (2008-2010) is to be adopted at the Spring Council. As the Strategy is starting to deliver jobs and growth, the Slovenian Presidency believes that radical changes in the priorities and processes are not needed; instead, efforts should be concentrated on implementation;
|
| |
|
Climate and Energy. The Slovenian Presidency will promote early agreement on the energy package, adopted by the Commission on 23 January. Further liberalization of the internal market for gas and electricity, strengthening dialogue with other regions and countries on energy issues and progress in international climate change negotiations are other aspects of this priority;
|
| |
|
Western Balkans. Affirming the importance of stability in the region for the security and prosperity of the EU, Slovenia wishes to focus on strengthening the Western Balkan states' European perspective. The future of Kosovo, the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the EU's relations to Serbia are key elements;
|
| |
|
Intercultural Dialogue. As 2008 was proclaimed the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the Presidency will strive to strengthen it within the Union and with neighbour regions such as the Mediterranean.
|
|
French EU Presidency: France has already begun preparations for its six-month EU Presidency, which begins on 1 July 2008. President Sarkozy stated, in his first state speech of the year on 8 January, that the French Presidency would aim to "moralize capitalism", that the EU should protect its citizens and pursue a policy of community preference, as well as creating a policy for civilization, for example projecting universal values in the world. The following specific priorities have already been identified:
|
| |
|
A European Migration Pact, to harmonize asylum systems, negotiations on readmissions agreements, and to prevent massive legalization procedures of illegal immigrants by individual Member States;
|
| |
|
European Defence policy. President Sarkozy would like the European budget to increase funding of defence and prepare for a more coherent and active defence policy with the forthcoming entry into force of the new Lisbon Treaty in January 2009;
|
| |
|
Mediterranean Union. President Sarkozy would like to launch a new policy of partnership with the southernmost neighbours of the European Union, an initiative he has entitled "the Mediterranean Union";
|
| |
|
Energy policy, to discuss energy security in Europe and promote the role of nuclear energy in the fight against climate change;
|
| |
|
Environment policy, to focus on greenhouse gas reduction, environmental taxation, the development of "clean" products and the creation of a European research area. The French Presidency will also prepare a programme with the Czech and Swedish governments (holders of the two successive EU Presidencies) in the area of the fight against climate change and reaching a global post-Kyoto agreement, air quality, the protection of biodiversity, waste management, and the promotion of sustainable development.
|
to top
Social Europe
|
Health and Safety at Work: On 15 January, the European Parliament adopted a report by Glenis Willmott (PES, Great Britain), on the Community Strategy 2007-2012 on health and safety at work, which welcomed the Commission's target to reduce work-related accidents by 25%, but deplored that there were no concrete objectives for the reduction of occupational diseases, especially for cancer. MEPs are calling for national action plans on phasing out asbestos. Although a call for a revision of the 2004 Carcinogens Directive was adopted, conservative and liberal MEPs rejected the Socialist Group's call for the inclusion o f crystalline silica, a cancer-causing substance to which over 3 million workers in the EU are routinely exposed. The report stresses the special situation of women, temporary workers, disabled workers, migrants, self-employed and sub-contracted workers in relation to health and safety.
|
|
Euro area enlargement: Cyprus and Malta adopted the single currency this month. The euro area now extends to 15 out of the 27 EU countries, including a population of 318 million out of the EU's total of 493 million.
|
|
Hedge and private equity funds: The PES President along with PES Employment and Social Affairs Ministers from Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, and Germany and the Secretary General of the ETUC sent a joint letter to President Barroso and Commissioner Charles McCreevy in December on the effect of the operation of private equity and hedge funds on workers' rights and viable companies in the European Union. The signatories of the letter draw attention to the lack of transparency of these funds and their adverse effects on financial markets. The European Commission is asked to carry out an assessment of the impact of these funds in Europe including on jobs, workers' rights and corporate governance. The letter also asks the European Commission to study possible regulatory actions so as to ensure that these funds support the real economy, employment and the long-term investments in the EU. Further to this action, initiatives at European level continue on this issue with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown inviting the Prime Ministers of France, Germany and Italy for a meeting to discuss financial markets and economic issues at the end of January.
|
|
Vaxholm-Laval case: The European Court of Justice delivered a controversial ruling on 18 December in the Vaxholm-Laval case, which set out that Swedish trade unions could not oblige a foreign company posting workers in Sweden to observe collective bargaining agreements. The Court ruled that Swedish trade unionists were acting unlawfully when they blockaded the building site of Latvian, Laval, which was paying Latvian workers less than Swedish workers in the sector to build a school in the Swedish city of Vaxholm. Laval, which refused to observe Swedish collective bargaining agreements in the building sector, was forced into bankruptcy. PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen issued a statement, which noted: "This is not a ruling for a Social Europe, this is a foggy day which cou ld provide cover for bad employers and wage cutters. The message it risks sending to citizens is that Europe is more interested in competition between workers than in raising living standards for all families."
|
to top
Energy and Climate change
|
Climate and energy package: The European Commission presented a comprehensive package of proposals on energy and climate change on 23 January, with a revised Renewable Energy Directive, a centrepiece of the legislative proposals. The package also includes a strategy for carbon capture and storage in the EU, and for sustainable coal technologies. The proposals have been transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers as part of the decision-making process which is expected to be completed this year.
|
|
Emissions Trading Scheme: On 20 December, EU Environment Ministers reached a compromise on the inclusion of aviation in the Emissions Trading Scheme. Their agreement, however, will lead to conflict with the European Parliament, which outlined a more ambitious proposal in its first reading (see EU Policy Brief November 2007). Airlines flying to and from EU territory would join the scheme in 2012 according to the Council compromise, a year later than the EP has suggested. They would be required to maintain emission levels at an average of 2004-2006 levels. Here, the European Parliament had agreed on a 10% reduction. The Council wants 90% of pollution permits for free, whereas MEPs had demanded at least 25% auctioning. Moreover, whereas the Parliament wants the money raised by auctioning pollution permits to be used to compensate for a lowering of "taxes and charges on climate-friendly transport such as rail and bus", the Council agreed that revenues from emissions allowance sales "should" be invested in climate change mitigation measures. The final decision, however, will be taken by Member States.
|
|
Soil degradation: EU Environment Ministers failed to agree at their meeting in December on the draft Soil Framework Directive, which proposed a systematic approach to identifying and combating soil degradation. Some Member States had concerns about subsidiarity, arguing that soil was not a matter to be negotiated at the European level. Others felt that the cost of the directive would be too high, and that the burden of implementation would be too heavy.
|
|
Commission proposal on car emissions: The Commission will propose legislation to make European carmakers reduce the average CO2 emissions of new vehicles to 130g/km by 2012. A voluntary agreement with manufacturers from 1995 did not achieve its targets. An initial target of 120g CO2/km was dropped due to pressure from the car industry and Member States. The Commission proposal contains penalties for companies failing to meet these targets, to be fully enforced from 2015 onwards. The car industry rejected the new plans for not allowing enough time to meet the targets, while environmental NGOs criticized the proposal for lowering the target for emissions reductions. The draft legislation has also already met with the criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel who believes it will damage competitiveness.
|
|
PES action on climate change: In a joint letter to Commission President Barroso, Swedish social democratic leader, Mona Sahlin, and PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen called for the setting up of an Oil Forum, bringing together politicians, scientists, industry and the European institutions to draw up a comprehensive programme to reduce Europe's dependence on oil. The Forum would examine where EU regulations may conflict with the overarching goal of breaking our dependence on oil and propose new EU policies where necessary.
|
to top
Justice and Home Affairs
|
Franco-Spanish Summit: On 10 January, 20th Franco-Spanish Summit took place in Paris, at which French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero signed a declaration supporting the principle of adopting an European Migration Pact during the French EU Presidency in the second half of this year. The declaration contains measures such as cooperation at common borders, a new drive in support of the European Frontex Agency, and the exchange of best practice to find a balance between the needs of the labour market, the skills of immigrants and the integration of migrants.
|
|
Enlargement of Schengen Zone: On 21 December, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic joined the Schengen area. This means that checks at internal land and sea borders within this area were abolished, allowing a greater freedom of movement of people in this area and a harmonized approach to control and security measures for external borders.
|
to top
Enlargement
|
Serbia and Kosovo: Nationalist Tomislav Nikolic has won the first round of Serbia's presidential election on 20 January, winning 39.6% of the vote, while President Boris Tadic (PES member) had 35.5%, although a similar result in the 2004 run-off finally lead to Mr. Tadic's victory in the second round of voting. Mr Nikolic is standing in for the Radical Party's official leader, Vojislav Seselj, who is still on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The second round will be held on 3 February 2008. Serbia hopes to be able to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement on the 28 January, but Belgium and the Netherlands are reluctant to reward Belgrade until the suspects, led by former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, are handed over to the court. Belgium and the Netherlands would consider its position again before 28 January, when EU Foreign Ministers are due to meet in Brussels. On 13 December, European enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn remarked that "resolving Kosovo's final status will be put off until the beginning of spring," adding that a decision on Kosovo "had to be found" as the current situation was "untenable."
|
|
Turkey: On 19 December, Turkey and the EU opened negotiations on the trans-European network and consumer and health protection chapters for EU accession. During the meeting, which was named an "intergovernmental conference" after France objected to the initial name of "accession conference", both the Portuguese EU Presidency and the European Commission stressed that the aim of the talk was accession, and not a kind of privileged partnership as proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. A bill to amend the much-criticized Article 301 of the penal code that penalizes "insulting Turkishness" is expected to be submitted to Parliament early 2008. The government has the intention of submitting the bill not as a law, but as a proposal by a group of parliamentarians. Amending the disputed article is a first in a series of fresh EU reforms the Turkish government had pledged to implement. |
to top
External Affairs
|
Lebanon elections postponed: Lebanese parliament speaker's office announced on 20 January that a parliamentary session to elect Lebanon's President was postponed again, from 21 January to 11 February. It is the 13th postponement since 25 September. The postponement came one day after Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa returned to Beirut from Syria. Mr. Moussa held talks with Lebanese leaders to promote an Arab initiative which was endorsed in Cairo on 6 January. The three-point Arab plan is aimed at immediately electing Lebanese Army Commander General Michel Suleiman as Lebanese President and proceeding to forming a government of national unity and drafting a new electoral law.
|
|
Trade: The European Commission has set out the priorities of the EU trade policy under Slovenian Presidency in the first half of 2008. On the multilateral level, its priorities are:
|
| |
|
The completion of Doha Round negotiations at the WTO. Revised compromise texts on the modalities in agriculture and manufactured goods are expected at the start of February, ahead of a ministerial meeting in April. The Commission is awaiting the opinion of the Article 133 Committee on its proposed review of January 2007 and the review of the WTO agreement on public procurement;
|
| |
|
The accessions of Montenegro, Russia and Ukraine to the WTO are also among the major issues;
|
| |
|
The largest trade dispute cases to be arbitrated by the WTO in the first six months of the year are on bananas (complaint brought by Ecuador), the Airbus-Boeing complaint and counter complaint (DS 316 and DS 353), GMOs, motor car spare parts opposing the EU and China (provisional report expected on 13 February) and the bans by Belgium and the Netherlands on trade in seal-based products;
|
| |
|
With regard to aid for trade, the Commission and the Council will continue to work on the Community strategy launched in October 2007. The 12th UNCTAD conference will be held in Accra, Ghana, from 20-25 April.
|
|
The Commission will continue its discussions for bilateral free trade agreements with several countries or groups of third countries. Discussions and negotiations will be conducted with the Western Balkans, the Euro Mediterranean region, South Korea, India, ASEAN, China, USA, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Andean community, Central America, with Canada and (in relation to the EU's economic partnership agreements) with the 78 ACP countries.
|
|
Development: Commission priorities for 2008 include:
|
| |
|
Implementation of the first EU-Africa common strategy adopted by the EU-Africa Lisbon Summit (7-9 December). 2008 will be the year when eight partnerships - a result of the first joint EU-Africa strategy - are implemented. The European Commission will publish a consultative communication on this and assessment of progress will be made in a joint EU-African Union report at the end of the year;
|
| |
|
Obtaining an EU-China partnership in Africa. China's increased power, as a privileged partner of Africa, led the Commission to hold a conference in Brussels in 2007 to consider a possible triangular partnership;
|
| |
|
Finalizing complete economic partnership agreements with all regions from the ACP group;
|
| |
|
Speeding up efforts to reach the objective of 0.7% of GDP for the volume of public development aid in 2015.
|
|
Pakistan - reaction to Bhutto assassination: PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen wished the new leadership of the Progressive Party of Pakistan success in the general elections in Pakistan on 18 February and offered PES' sincere condolences for the murder of Benazir.
|
to top
Party of European Socialists 
To unsubscribe please send an email to activists@lists.pes.org
| |
|
|
|
