Finns seek thaw in law-making freeze

Date: 13/05/1999

By Tim Jones

FINNISH Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen is putting pressure on the caretaker European Commission to propose key open government and environmental laws to prevent his country's six-month EU presidency from being a policy wash-out.

Finland, which will take charge of Union business for the first time from July, has won a commitment from Jacques Santer's outgoing Commission team to publish new rules protecting personal data held by 'Community institutions' by the end of July and tentative plans for guaranteeing public access to EU documents.

Lipponen's government is now pushing the lame-duck Commission to unblock proposals for a ground-breaking directive which would set national emission ceilings for four industrial pollutants, and strategies for cutting ground-level ozone and protecting air quality.

After Santer's team resigned in March, Commissioners agreed to avoid initiating any politically sensitive proposals until they were replaced by a new 20-member College.

But once it became clear incoming President Romano Prodi's team would not take office until September at the earliest, the Finns asked other member states to help them draw up a 'hit list' of laws which the Santer Commission could propose despite the freeze.

" We are very disappointed that, for the first three months of our presidency, we may effectively have no Commission," said a senior Finnish official. "Our reading of the Commission's attitude is that unless they are invited to do something, they will not do anything. But we have the impression that, if member states urge them to make a proposal, then they may do it."

The Amsterdam Treaty, which came into force last week, requires the EU to take swift action on access to documents and data protection.

Acting Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti's staff have promised the Finns that they will soon publish a detailed regulation extending common EU rules on data protection which took force in October to Community institutions and agencies. A new 'independent supervisory body' will be set up, modelled on the EU Ombudsman's office, to oversee implementation.

Finnish demands for the Commission to deliver on its second treaty obligation - to propose legislation which would guarantee that any Union citizen would have access to European Parliament, Council of Ministers or Commission documents - have been less successful.

Santer has only promised a consultative paper by early next month and a formal proposal is not expected until October.

A Commission working paper on the issue, which provided open access to legislative documents but maintained restrictions on 'internal working documents', provoked dismay among civil liberties groups as well as Nordic governments.

" This is a co-decision issue so there is not much chance of getting it through during the Finnish presidency," said Tony Bunyan, who heads the civil liberties group Statewatch. "However, if the Finns can improve the proposal, then this will be a public starting point and it will be hard for the following Portuguese and French presidencies to tear it up."

Helsinki has, however, abandoned its efforts to persuade Acting Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn to come forward with proposals for a framework directive dealing with discrimination at work, and another to combat racial prejudice in employment, education, access to services, welfare, culture and sport. Flynn insists that this highly controversial proposal should be left to his successor.

Acting Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard will answer Finnish demands for a new communication on climate change strategy next Wednesday (19 May), but negotiations are continuing over Helsinki's call for an early tabling of air-quality proposals and promised reports on the integration of environmental protection into all aspects of Union policy.