23-24 April European Parliament plenary session

Date: 01/05/1997

FACED with growing concern at the use of the Internet to disseminate pornographic and other offensive material, MEPs called for an EU framework for self-regulation and international cooperation between the Union and its main partners around the world. The Parliament also urged the EU to develop and impose unique sender-recognition codes for anyone providing data over the Internet, and to introduce criminal prosecutions for any violation of basic minimum standards. MEPs asked member states to encourage the use of parental control systems applying newly-developed filtering techniques.

THE nuclear cooperation agreement signed between the US and the Union in 1995 came in for criticism from MEPs. They contrasted the absence of democratic control in the EU and the inability of the European Parliament to influence its contents with the fact that in the US the accord had to be passed by Congress. Irish Green MEP Nuala Ahern voiced her anxiety at the volume of nuclear material which would be transported for reprocessing in France and the UK. She predicted that 545,000 kilos of plutonium would be sent for reprocessing in the EU by the year 2010, with considerable implications for nuclear safety and radioactive waste disposal.

FUTURE Union legislation should not impose unnecessarily burdensome or complicated rules on small and medium-sized companies, according to a business assessment scheme adopted by MEPs. The Parliament agreed that all future legislative proposals should include a review of their likely impact on small firms. Similar analyses are already being made of the health, security, employment and environmental consequences of EU proposals.

MEPs gave their approval to a framework cooperation agreement with Chile designed to lead to closer economic and political relations, although many warned that the country did not yet have the necessary institutions in place to guarantee fully democratic rule. Manuel Marín, the European Commissioner for Latin America, acknowledged that certain democratic 'grey' areas existed, but insisted that this made it all the more necessary for MEPs and the Commission to keep an eye on developments.

GERMAN Socialist MEP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt was elected chairwoman of the 20-strong BSE parliamentary committee which will monitor Union efforts to prevent any repetition of last year's mad cow crisis.