30-31 October General Affairs Council

Date: 02/11/1995

THE EU still wants two of the seven seats on the World Trade Organisation's appeals panel for trade disputes. Ministers were openly angry at Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan for negotiating a compromise with Washington in which the EU and the US would each have one seat, with the others going to Japan, Egypt, Uruguay, New Zealand and the Philippines. Fearing that all but Japan would side with the US in trade disputes because they oppose the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, the ministers asked Brittan to go back to the WTO and negotiate the composition of a new panel.

NUCLEAR testing is still causing waves in foreign ministers' meetings. The ministers of Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden criticised France again for the continued test blasts.

THE Union will fund a third of the reconstruction costs for war-torn regions of the former Yugoslavia, some 1.5 billion ecu, if a peace settlement is reached, officials said. French foreign minister Hervé de Charette said he and his EU counterparts hoped that the US would contribute the same amount, with the final third coming from other nations, including wealthy Arab states. Most of the money will go to Bosnia and Croatia.

MINISTERS of nine Central and Eastern European states met their EU counterparts to review their economic and political progress towards Union membership. They also discussed how the nine could be involved in efforts to cement peace in the former Yugoslavia and if they would be willing to contribute funds to the reconstruction programme. EU ministers also briefed the nine on the Union's efforts in the Middle East peace process.

MINISTERS adopted, without any debate, the draft “action plan” for EU joint actions with a dozen nations in North Africa and the Middle East bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The plan now goes to the Mediterranean states to be reviewed by them before the two sides meet at the Euro-Med conference in Barcelona on 27 November.

FOREIGN Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek met Lithuanian Foreign Minister Povilas Gylys and signed an agreement establishing a Commission delegation in Vilnius which will begin work before the end of the year.

DISAGREEMENT over trade concessions for Morocco have forced ministers to call a special meeting on 10 November. Germany and the Netherlands want both special clauses for cut flowers and promises from Morocco to repatriate Moroccans working in Europe illegally. France and Spain want an association accord to be finalised with Morocco before the EU meets with Mediterranean partners in Barcelona.

A STUDY of the benefits of a transatlantic free-trade area is still opposed by some EU states. A plan for EU-US cooperation includes promoting world trade and fighting together international crime, drug trafficking, terrorism and disease, but contains no mention of the study proposed by the European Commission.

MINISTERS have formally requested the Commission's opinion on whether to bring Latvia into the European Union.