15-19 July European Parliament plenary session

Date: 25/07/1996

IRISH Foreign Minister Dick Spring told MEPs that his country was taking over the EU presidency at a time of exceptional challenges, including job creation, the security of citizens, the move to a single currency, enlargement of the Union and reform of the Maastricht Treaty. In the ensuing debate, repeated emphasis was placed on the need for concrete measures to tackle unemployment and rising crime. Spring also welcomed the recent decision by US President Bill Clinton to suspend the extra-territorial effects of the Helms-Burton legislation on firms dealing with Cuba, but still called on the Americans to rethink their controversial policy.

DUBLIN'S Finance Minister Ruairi Quinn promised the Parliament he would inform his ministerial colleagues about MEPs' concerns over the lack of public support for the budgetary discipline necessary to introduce economic and monetary union. But he insisted that monetary policy would not be relaxed, despite calls for greater attention to be paid to the employment implications of meeting the conditions for a single currency.

WHILE approving recommendations to improve the Union's embryonic common foreign and security policy (CFSP), MEPs deleted any reference to a “common system of deterrence”. Although the report's author Spanish Christian Democrat MEP Gerardo Fernández-Albor vigorously denied the suggestion, many members feared that the controversial phrase referred to a nuclear deterrent. Instead, the Parliament decided the CFSP should concentrate on conflict prevention, peace keeping and humanitarian aid missions.

A SPECIAL committee of inquiry was established by the Parliament to investigate alleged infringements of the EU ban on British beef exports and claims of maladaministration of the 'mad cow' crisis. The committee's work will last for three months and will lead to recommendations on ways to improve the openness of EU policy on BSE and to protect public health. The decision to set up the inquiry followed reports that the European Commission was aware as early as 1990 of the possible dangers involved and allegedly hid these fears by a policy of disinformation.

SPRING told MEPs that, despite the recent return of violence in Northern Ireland, Dublin and London would continue their joint efforts to bring about a comprehensive political settlement based on a lasting peace. He insisted that the multi-party negotiations, launched by both governments on 10 June, offered an unprecedented opportunity to achieve such an agreement. Parliament President Klaus Hänsch pledged MEPs' steadfast support for peace. Drawing on South African President Nelson Mandela's recent visits to the UK and France, he said that the message for Northern Ireland was not to forget about the past, but to build the future in a spirit of peace, friendship and forgiveness.

THE Parliament approved the Union's programme for the reconstruction and development of South Africa, but insisted that a number of changes be inserted into the final agreement. Concerned at the bureaucratic delays in organising and financing projects on the ground, MEPs supported the report's author, German Christian Democrat MEP Maren Günther, and called for greater financial powers to be given to the head of the Commission's delegation in the country. Development Commissioner João de Deus Pinheiro conceded there had been some delays, but pointed out that 95&percent; of the resources available had now been committed.

HUMAN rights issues featured prominently during the session as MEPs urged the Union to introduce economic sanctions against Burma by ending all economic, commercial, tourism and investment links. The move was in protest at the country's use of forced labour and in line with calls from democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest. The Parliament argued that the boycott should remain in place until the ban on the National League for Democracy was removed and a satisfactory explanation had been given for the death in prison of the Danish Consul James Leonard Nichols. MEPs also repeated their call for the Iranian government to end its fatwa against the British writer Salman Rushdie and urged the Algerian authorities to release the political cartoonist Chawki Amari.