Jobs and enlargement key issues at summit

Date: 11/06/1998

EMPLOYMENT

THE European Commission will present political leaders with two reports on job creation in the EU. The first was published last month as an initial assessment of the action plans EU governments agreed to draw up after last November's jobs summit in Luxembourg. The Commission has said it will produce a more detailed analysis of the plans at the end of the year. The second report was unveiled last week and outlines how EU job-creation initiatives can complement national strategies for employment generation. The document stresses how EU-backed projects in the fields of research, training and infrastructure development can help create employment. “We are not just preaching to member states about what they should be doing, but are also showing how what we have already been doing can help create jobs,” said one Commission official.

AGENDA 2000/ENLARGEMENT

SUMMITEERS will hear a progress report from the Commission on how the 'screening' process is going with first-wave membership candidates Cyprus, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Estonia. The separate but linked issues of the division of Cyprus, and Turkey's continuing demand to be included in the first wave will also be discussed by premiers and their foreign ministers. The UK presidency has handed prime ministers' offices a two-part report on first national reactions to the Commission's Agenda 2000 package, which provides a blueprint for reforming the EU's institutions and rejigging the budget in readiness for enlargement. The second voluminous part sets out the differences between member states over key issues and indicates possible compromises, including German demands for a 'correction mechanism' to reduce Bonn's net contributions to EU coffers.

CRIME

TWO reports dealing with the problem of crime within the Union will be discussed by EU leaders. The first will be an update on progress in implementing the action plan on organised crime unveiled at last June's Amsterdam summit.

Since then, EU governments have made limited advances in improving cooperation in criminal investigations. This month, member states also signed a 'pre-accession pact' on organised crime with the aspiring member states from central and eastern Europe. However, the centre-piece of their crime-fighting efforts, the Europol police agency, has not been able to start work at full capacity because of delays in ratifying its founding convention. The second report will look at progress made in the fight against drugs. While drug policy is essentially a national competence, EU governments agreed last year to set up an 'early-warning system' to detect the appearance of new synthetic drugs in the Union.

ENVIRONMENT

A COMMISSION report on how environmental concerns should be integrated into all areas of policy-making will be presented to EU leaders. Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard and Commission President Jacques Santer were asked to draw up the document at last December's Luxembourg summit. It will suggest a whole package of guidelines to be followed by decision-makers when drafting policy initiatives in areas from energy to transport. The Commission points out that it has now put forward most of the specific 'green' legislative proposals it intends to, and says the next step is to ensure environmental issues are considered across the board. The report will build on the pledge made by the Commission in July 1997 to try to take the environmental impact into account in drawing up proposals for legislation.

SOUTH AFRICA

EUROPE's leaders were meant to offer South African President Nelson Mandela a parting gift. Cardiff had been pencilled into diaries as the venue for the signing of an agreement to make the country one of the EU's three most favoured wholly external trading partners. It was not to be. Mandela will leave empty-handed, but perhaps with a sketched outline of the accord to come. UK Europe Minister Doug Henderson claimed last week that a deal was within reach. The Union and South Africa are divided over a raft of substantive trade issues including joint anti-dumping rules, safeguards, competition policy, government procurement, maritime transport and market access. The EU is keen to ensure that the deal is fully compatible with World Trade Organisation rules, meaning that it will have to raise the amount of mutual trade it covers from 85&percent; to 90&percent;. If agreed, this will be the first example of a preferential agreement in which free trade is extended to agricultural products.