France

Much of the coverage of the latest report by the Reflection Group charged with preparing the ground for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) has emphasised what has not been agreed, rather than what has.

24 November-23 December 1995Friday 24 November

ConcertsOrchestre de Chambre du Conservatoire conducted by Jean Baily with Léon Ara, violin: Constant, Symphonie No 39, Mozart. Conservatoire royal de Musique de Bruxelles. 17 Nov. 02/511 04 27.

BANKERS are relieved that the European Union is at last on the verge of drawing up a detailed scenario for the transition to a single currency, but say the blueprint unveiled this week still leaves some questions unanswered.

CARNAUDMETALBOX and Crown, Cork & Seal’s 3-billion-ecu merger was cleared by the European Commission on Tuesday (14 November). The concentration, which will create the world’s largest packaging firm, was allowed after the two companies agreed to sell five units making tinplate aerosol cans.

The Council of Europe should be flattered. After years living in the shadow of the European Union, which it predates as an initiative for post-war unity, the Council finds itself being courted by America and Japan, both seeking status as accredited observers to the Strasbourg institution.

THE referendum in Quebec has been followed with particular attention in the Belgian media and political circles.

AS Spain’s turn at the helm of the EU draws to a close, its dream of opening up Europe’s 136 billion ecu-a-year electricity market to competition seems unlikely to come true.

SLUGGISH implementation of European Union law, combined with software problems, mean a key piece of banking legislation due to enter into force in January is likely to be widely ignored.

TRANSIT fraud has cost the European Union up to 8 billion ecu since the single market entered into force, prompting calls for a major investigation into the problem and how to combat it.

FOREIGN language teachers at Italian universities are accusing the country’s authorities of continuing to operate discriminatory staffing policies in defiance of a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling and criticism from MEPs.

IT was a disappointing day for NATO watchers, and for Ruud Lubbers, as alliance ambassadors failed to name a new secretary general during their long-awaited Wednesday meeting.

THE European Commission is putting the finishing touches to its White Paper on how to ease crippling congestion in the EU’s skies. But it faces severe opposition from most member states to the creation of new cross-border structures under the control of the EU institutions.

IF the news that Alain Juppé has kept his job as French prime minister were not enough to please supporters of deeper European integration, the come-back of Alain Lamassoure will surely delight them.

AS the world speculates anxiously on the future of the Middle East peace process in the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, European Union officials have underlined their determination to help acting Premier Shimon Peres build on his predecessor’s work.

ONE might have thought that talk of ensuring the peace in former Yugoslavia would bring the Western European Union (WEU) on to the radar screen of European initiatives, but the little-known agency seems destined to remain in the shadows.

A SHOWDOWN over where MEPs are to do their work in 1996 now looks inevitable, following France’s decision to challenge plans to cut the number of plenary sessions held in Strasbourg in court.

From Tom GlaserThe problem of public ‘morale’ and views of what politicians are good for, raised in Jean-Paul Marthoz’s article last week, may stem from a fundamental constitutional point.

“France continues to seriously damage its international reputation by its actions in the face of world opinion.”Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, speaking after France conducted its third nuclear test in the South Pacific.

EUROFIGHTER. Eurofrigate. Eurocopter. Increasing joint weapons systems give the impression that European nations are integrating their defence industries along the lines of the single market.

THE fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in the former Soviet Union may have been welcomed by most Europeans but, for Europe’s armaments industry, it has spelled crisis.

SIX years ago, Germans on both sides of the vanishing wall were breathlessly witnessing the unthinkable: the silent collapse of a threatening world that most people assumed would survive for decades to come.

THE EU still wants two of the seven seats on the World Trade Organisation’s appeals panel for trade disputes. Ministers were openly angry at Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan for negotiating a compromise with Washington in which the EU and the US would each have one seat, with the others going to Japan, Egypt, Uruguay, New Zealand and the Philippines. Fearing that all but Japan would side with the US in trade disputes because they oppose the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, the ministers asked Brittan to go back to the WTO and negotiate the composition of a new panel.

FARM ministers expressed broad support for the Commission’s proposals for the reform of the fruit and vegetable sector, but some countries, notably the Netherlands and Belgium, objected to having to co-finance reform measures. The UK was unhappy at giving producer organisations a greater role in market management. The Mediterranean states opposed plans to reduce withdrawal prices for surplus production. The UK and Sweden said the system should rely purely on market forces. Ministers were also split over whether to adopt UN quality norms or maintain the current system.