Bulgaria

CROATIA may be further than ever from the trade and cooperation accord it began negotiating with the EU in June.

The European Commission looks ready to admit that if enlargement to the east is to take place, further reform of its Common Agricultural Policy will be inevitable. Michael Mann reports that calls for a change to CAP, accounting for half of the EU’s total expenditure, are becoming too loud to ignore

WITH a new sun on its flag, Skopje is coming in from the cold.

A EUROPEAN Parliament amendment which would introduce tougher car-crash tests sooner if adopted by EU ministers has been taken on board by the European Commission. The Commission had originally suggested a gradual introduction of stricter tests, but has now agreed to move straight to higher standards in October 1998.

EU environment ministers have called for a unified policy to improve the quality and quantity of water available to consumers. In a concluding statement following their meeting in Seville, ministers said that an EU framework directive was the best way to bring about a unified policy. Future water management should be based on the idea of sustainable development, the statement stressed. Emission values and quality objectives “should not be understood as a right to pollute”. Spanish Environment Minister José Borrell claimed that his colleagues had been receptive to the idea of using cohesion funds to finance construction of water-related infrastructure, such as purification plants.

EUROPEAN steel-manufacturers are edging closer to filing a complaint with the European Commission to stop the mounting wave of low-priced imports from Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.

EU finance ministers will give their blessing next week to Finland’s programme for ‘converging’ its economy towards the targets on price and budgetary control required as the entry ticket into economic and monetary union.

BOTH national authorities and the European Commission come in for trenchant criticism over their handling of EU finances last year in the latest annual investigation by the EU’s Court of Auditors. The allegations range from maladministration to examples of direct fraud.

ConcertsBelgian National Orchestra conducted by Jansug Kakhidze with Maxim Vengerov, violin: Sibelius’ Tapiola, Brahms’ Violin Concerto Opus 77, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5. Palais des Beaux-Arts. Sept. 21.