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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 96-11-12
From: EUROPA, the European Commission Server at <http://europa.eu.int>
MIDDAY EXPRESS
News from the Spokesman's midday briefing
Nouvelles du rendez-vous de midi du Porte-Paroleb
12/11/1996
CONTENTS / CONTENU
[01] Court of Auditors' report 1995: Commission reacts to Court's
observations
[02] Court of Auditors' "statement of assurance" (or DAS) 1995 - the
Commission's response
[03] Economic Sentiment continues to improve
[04] Statement by Padraig Flynn on the Europan Court of Justice ruling on
the UK challenge to the "Working Time Directive"
[05] Commission refocuses trade policy towards market opening for European
companies
[06] Commission clears the creation of a joint venture between ESPN and
STAR
[07] Commission clears Allianz' acquisition of sole control in Vereinte
[08] Mario Monti: Making the single market effective
[09] 10,8% de chômeurs dans l'UE en septembre
[01] Court of Auditors' report 1995: Commission reacts to Court's
observations
The European Commission welcomes the Court of Auditors' Annual Report as it
reflects a shared concern about sound and efficient management of the
Community budget. The Court's observations have played an important role
in launching the reform of the financial management and control of EU
expenditure to which the present Commission is firmly committed. The
Commission notices the Court´s balanced approach as it clearly identifies
specific areas of responsibilities of the Commission and the Member States.
This is of a particular importance as 85% of the Community budget is
executed by the Member States. The Court also widely recognizes efforts
made by the Commission in the Sound and Efficient Management (SEM 2000)
programme. In this context the Court stresses the importance of further
clarifying which expenditure is eligible for assistance from Structural
Funds in Member States.
[02] Court of Auditors' "statement of assurance" (or DAS) 1995 - the
Commission's response
The Court of Auditors has produced a Statement of Assurance (or DAS for
"Déclaration d'Assurance") on the 1995 Community Budget which concludes
that accounts and balance sheet are reliable. The European Commission
welcomes the overall conclusions of the Statement of Assurance. It agrees
that the errors in payments are still too high and it will take measures in
the framework of Sound and Efficient Management (SEM 2000) to launch
necessary improvements. The Commission insists that such errors - of which
90% occured in Member States - do not necessarily represent a corresponding
damage to the Community budget. Moreover discussions on the sampling
approach used in the DAS still continue. The Commission shares the Court's
view that it will take several years before DAS audit will have
sufficiently gained maturity to enable trends in error rates to be
identified.
[03] Economic Sentiment continues to improve
According to preliminary figures from the Commission's monthly business and
consumer surveys, capacity utilization in manufacturing has increased to
81.0% in October (80.8% in July). Improving order-book assessment and
increasing production expectations could lead to a further rise in capacity
utilization, giving then a stimulus to investment. Consumer confidence has
gone up for the first time since March, reinforcing the improvement of the
overall economic climate. The economic sentiment indicator increased in all
countries, except for Italy, and for Europe it reached its highest level of
the current year.
[04] Statement by Padraig Flynn on the Europan Court of Justice ruling on
the UK challenge to the "Working Time Directive"
Commenting on today's ruling by the European Court of Justice on the UK
challenge to the "Working Time Directive", Social Affairs Commissioner
Padraig Flynn said: "I am delighted that the Court has rejected the UK case
on all grounds with the exception of the provision concerning Sunday in
principle to be included in the weekly rest period (Article 5). The
European Commission has always believed and argued that the legal base
(Article 118A) was correct and that the number of hours people work is a
health and safety issue. I am, therefore, pleased that the Court has
confirmed this view." The main aim of the Directive is to protect
employees against the adverse effects on their health and safety caused by
working excessively long hours, having inadequate rest or disruptive
working patterns.
[05] Commission refocuses trade policy towards market opening for European
companies
The European Commission has unveiled today the EU‘s new Market Access
Strategy designed to sharpen Europe's ability to remove the most persistent
barriers to European exports. In a bid to help business to expand abroad
and create jobs, it will focus much of its efforts and resources on the
elimination of barriers to European exports. This strategy will regroup
all the multilateral and bilateral tools at Europe's disposal and urge
businessmen to tell the Commission systematically where the worst barriers
are. Over 700 obstacles have already been identified, hitting sales of
anything from toys to Brazil, cars to Indonesia, silk to the US or CDs to
China. The Commission will then use a database to list market hurdles by
sector and by country, monitor legislation to open those markets and
recommend the right action - whether a WTO panel or a bilateral negotiation
for example - where markets remain closed. Speaking in Brussels today to
the Market Access Symposion, Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan called on
businessmen gathered in Brussels to tell the Commission where the worst
barriers are in the markets they want the most. In return the Commission
will use all the trade instruments - at national, European and world level -
to maximise Europe's efforts to remove those barriers.
[06] Commission clears the creation of a joint venture between ESPN and
STAR
The European Commission has approved an operation by which ESP, Inc. (part
of The Walt Disney group) and Star Television Limited (part of the News
Corporation group) will create a joint venture to distribute principally
Asian-interest sports programming via non-standard television in 27 Asian
countries and to acquire rights to distribute such programming. Non-
standard television includes all forms of television distribution, other
than free, terrestrial UHF or VHF television, e.g. cable, microwave,
satellite dish services, and any form of encrypted service, including
encrypted terrestrial UHF or VHF television.
[07] Commission clears Allianz' acquisition of sole control in Vereinte
The European Commission has given the green light to the proposed
acquisition of sole control of the German insurance company Vereinte
Holding AG by Allianz AG Holding. The proposed acquisition is linked to a
reorganization of shareholdings between Allianz and Münchner
Rückversicherung-Gesellschaft AG, which should, according to Allianz,
create the necessary precondition in terms of competition law, for its
takeover of Vereinte. The Commission had recently cleared the acquisition
of control in Hermes Kreditversicherungs-AG by Allianz. Two other parts of
this proposed reorganization, i.e. the acquisition of a minority stake in
Vereinte Krankenversicherung by Allianz from Münchner Rück and the sale of
its majority stake in DKV Deutsche Krankenversicherung AG by Allianz to
Münchner Rück, were notified to the Bundeskartellamt.
[08] Mario Monti: Making the single market effective
"The Single Market is beginning to deliver the promised results", declared
today Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti at the CBI Conference in
Harrogate. It is serving as the launching pad for improving competitiveness
and for attaining higher levels of job creation and sustainable growth.
This is indeed the evidence which results from the 1996 review on the
impact and effectiveness of the Single Market, even if it is still too
early for many Single Market measures to have taken full effect. "But
there is no room for complacency", stressed Mr Monti. The benefits and the
opportunities would have been greater if Member States had been more
diligent on applying the rules, and reducing over-regulation. Now it is up
to business to make the most of the Single Market: too many companies,
especially SMEs, seem to be unaware of, or reluctant to take on, new
opportunities and challenges. Generally, companies have not completely
exploited their potential scale economies. Mr. Monti is calling for a
renewed commitment to the Single Market: this is an area where CBI can play
a very useful role.
[09] 10,8% de chômeurs dans l'UE en septembre
Avec un taux de 10,8% en septembre, le chômage dans l'UE15, corrigé des
variations saisonnières, est resté identique durant quatre mois, selon les
chiffres publiés aujourd'hui par Eurostat, l'Office statistique des
Communautés européennes à Luxembourg. Le taux de chômage s'était élevé à
10,7% au mois de septembre de l'année dernière. Selon Eurostat, le taux de
chômage est resté stable dans la plupart des Etats membres au cours du
troisième trimestre. Il a toutefois continué d'augmenter en France (de 12,
3% en juin à 12,5%) et de se réduire au Royaume-Uni (de 8,3% à 8,1%), au
Portugal (de 7,4% à 7,1%) et en Finlande (de 16,2% à 15,1%). Outre la
France et la Finlande, l'Irlande (12,4%), l'Italie (12,2% en juillet) et
l'Espagne (21,4%, le taux le plus élevé au sein de l'UE) enregistraient des
taux supérieurs à la moyenne communautaire. Le Luxembourg conservait le
taux le plus bas, avec 3,2%. A titre de comparaison avec l'UE, le chômage
s'élevait à 5,2% aux Etats-Unis et à 3,3% au Japon.
MIDDAY EXPRESS
From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
© ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996
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