Cox attacks Nielson’s summit ‘antics’

Date: 19/09/02

By Martin Banks

PAT Cox, president of the European Parliament, has launched a blistering attack on the 'antics' of Development Commissioner Poul Nielson at the recent world summit in Johannesburg.

He has reproached the Dane for failing to communicate with MEPs who attended the event earlier this month.

Nielson, and environment chief Margot Wallström, led the European Commission's team at the summit, which was also attended by heads of state, including UK premier Tony Blair and French president, Jacques Chirac.

Cox says Nielson failed to provide the summit's large parliamentary delegation with information about its negotiating position.

The Parliament's president made his comments at the opening of a Brussels conference on sustainable development at the European and Economic Social Committee (ESC). With Commission President Romano Prodi sitting alongside him, Cox admonished the executive, comparing its approach unfavourably with that of the Danish EU presidency team.

Participants at the two-day conference, which ended last Friday, were visibly shocked at the tone of the Irishman's remarks.

Later, a Cox aide explained: 'The MEPs at the summit had to get a lot of information, not, as they might have expected from the commissioner, but from Hans Christian Schmidt [the Danish environment minister] and the Council of Ministers' representatives.

'There was generally a lack of information and briefings forthcoming from the commissioner.'

It is the second time the Commission has been criticised over its role at the summit. The Green group has said that a splintered approach between Commission officials meant trade concerns were given a higher priority than environmental ones.

Nielson and Wallström hit back at the Greens' criticism in a joint letter to European Voice last week, declaring that 'nothing could be further from the truth' and that the Commission team had shown 'a strong and tightly coordinated presence in Johannesburg'.

Meanwhile, Ralph Hallo, president of the European Environmental Bureau, a federation of environmental organisations, has called on the EU to take sustainable development more seriously.

Speaking at the ESC conference, he said: 'Prodi and heads of state must take the lead, not for some special occasions, but on an ongoing basis to make sustainable development the overarching project of the EU.

'The absence of senior representatives of the Commission and EU governments from this event shows that we are still far from that.'

Pat Cox, president of the European Parliament, has reproached Development Commissioner Poul Nielson for failing to communicate with MEPs at the recent world summit in Johannesburg.