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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 00-09-05
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 Service Presse et Communicationb
05/09/2000
CONTENTS / CONTENU
[01] Romano Prodi and Chris Patten call for strengthened EU external action
[02] EU provides vaccine to Turkey to help combat foot-and-mouth disease
[03] La Commission autorise l'opération de concentration entre ZF Gotha et
Graziano Trasmissioni
[04] Commission clears creation of a joint venture between BT, Japan
Telecom and Vodafone in Japan
[05] Commission clears acquisition by Clayton Dubilier & Rice of Italtel
[06] La Commission autorise la création de l'entreprise commune BOL Italia
par Bertelsmann AG et Mondadori S.p.A.
[07] La Commission donne son feu vert à Cofunds Ltd, un supermarché en
ligne pour les fonds de placement destinés aux particuliers
[08] Commission clears the acquisition by Toyota Motor Corporation of its
UK distributor Toyota (GB) PLC
[09] Industrial producer prices rose by 0.5% in euro-zone ; up 0.4% in EU15
[10] Euro-zone unemployment unchanged at 9.1% ; EU15 down to 8.3%
[11] Erkki Liikanen and Christian Pierret hold joint press conference in
Strasbourg
[01] Romano Prodi and Chris Patten call for strengthened EU external action
The President of the European Commission Romano Prodi and External
Relations Commissioner Chris Patten addressed yesterday the bi-annual
meeting of Heads of Commission Delegations abroad. They called upon them to
play their part in ensuring that EU policies and programmes become more
visible and are delivered as efficiently as possible.
[02] EU provides vaccine to Turkey to help combat foot-and-mouth disease
The European Commission decided on 4 August 2000 to provide a trivalent
vaccine formulated from antigen stocks kept at the EU antigen bank to
Turkey to help combat an exotic strain (ASIA 1) of foot-and-mouth disease
in ruminants in the Thrace region of this country and thereby to protect
the EU livestock. The decision follows a request for assistance by the
Turkish authorities. The Commission has arranged for replacement of the
used antigen stocks without delay. The EU has important reserves of the
virus antigen, which is the basis for the production of the vaccine. The
first lot of trivalent vaccine against the ASIA 1 virus of the foot-and-
mouth disease is due to arrive in Turkey today.
[03] La Commission autorise l'opération de concentration entre ZF Gotha et
Graziano Trasmissioni
La Commission européenne a autorisé, conformément au règlement sur les
concentrations, un projet d'entreprise commune - ZF Graziano Materials
Handling Components GmbH - entre l'entreprise allemande ZF Gotha et
l'entreprise italienne Graziano Trasmissioni. L'entreprise commune sera
contrôlée par ces deux sociétés et rassemblera leurs activités respectives
dans le domaine des unités de transmission pour chariots élévateurs. Elle
sera le principal fournisseur de ce secteur dans l'Union européenne. Il
existe cependant d'autres gros fournisseurs au niveau européen : Dana
Spicer Clark Hürth et Carraro. Les constructeurs de chariots élévateurs eux-
mêmes constituent un groupe de fournisseurs importants, parmi lesquels
Linde/Fiat, Toyota/BT, Jungheinrich et Nissan. La Commission a donc
considéré que la fondation de cette entreprise commune ne créerait ni ne
renforcerait une position dominante dans le marché commun.
[04] Commission clears creation of a joint venture between BT, Japan
Telecom and Vodafone in Japan
The European Commission has approved the planned creation of a joint
venture between the companies British Telecommunications Plc (BT), Japan
Telecom Co., Ltd. (JT) and Vodafone AirTouch Plc (Vodafone). The new joint
venture, J-Phone Communications Co., Ltd. (J-Phone) has been awarded a
license for the exploitation of the third generation UMTS mobile
telecommunications in Japan. The concentration concerns the mobile
telecommunications business in Japan. There are no affected markets in the
European Economic Area. Thus the transaction does not create any
competitive concern for the Commission.
[05] Commission clears acquisition by Clayton Dubilier & Rice of Italtel
The European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of control of
Telecom Italia's telecommunications switching equipment supplier Italtel
S.p.A. by Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). CD&R is a US private investment
firm with a wide spread of activities of the portfolio companies. Italtel
is an Italian supplier of public telecommunications equipment and systems,
set top boxes ant telephone sets.
[06] La Commission autorise la création de l'entreprise commune BOL Italia
par Bertelsmann AG et Mondadori S.p.A.
La Commission européenne a autorisé la concentration entre Bertelsmann AG
et Mondadori S.p.A. Cette opération donnera aux parties le contrôle en
commun de BOL Italia S.p.A. L'opération ne créera ni ne renforcera de
position dominante.
[07] La Commission donne son feu vert à Cofunds Ltd, un supermarché en
ligne pour les fonds de placement destinés aux particuliers
La Commission européenne a autorisé la création d'une entreprise commune,
Cofunds Ltd (CFL). CFL sera un supermarché électronique qui vendra des
fonds de placement destinés aux particuliers par le biais d'intermédiaires
indépendants.
[08] Commission clears the acquisition by Toyota Motor Corporation of its
UK distributor Toyota (GB) PLC
The European Commission has authorised an operation whereby Toyota Motor
Corporation acquires sole control of Toyota (GB) PLC, its exclusive
distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the UK through the acquisition
of all of its stock capital. There are no horizontally or vertically
affected markets in the sense of the Merger Regulation, and the operation
will not change the present market structure or result in additional
foreclosure effects on the UK automotive market.
[09] Industrial producer prices rose by 0.5% in euro-zone ; up 0.4% in EU15
(! embargo 12 am !) The euro-zone industrial producer price index rose by
0.5% in July 2000, compared with June, Eurostat estimates today. The July
rise stems largely from the intermediate goods sector, in which prices rose
by 0.8% in the euro-zone and by 0.7% in the EU15. Durable and non-durable
consumer goods increased in both the euro-zone and the EU15 by 0.1% and
0.2% respectively. Producer prices for capital goods went up by 0.1% in the
euro-zone, but remained unchanged in the EU15. Compared to July 1999,
producer prices increased by 5.5% in the euro-zone and 5.0% in the EU15.
[10] Euro-zone unemployment unchanged at 9.1% ; EU15 down to 8.3%
(! embargo 12 am !) Euro-zone seasonally-adjusted unemployment was
unchanged in July compared to June at 9.1%, Eurostat reports today. This
compares to 9.9% in July 1999. The EU15 rate fell to 8.3% in July from 8,4%
in June. In July 1999 it was 9.1%. Lowest rates were registered in
Luxembourg (2.2% in June), in the Netherlands (2.6% in June) and in Austria
(3.2%). Spain's 14.2% remained the EU's highest rate.
[11] Erkki Liikanen and Christian Pierret hold joint press conference in
Strasbourg
On the occasion of the Forum on the EU forest-based industries that will be
held in Strasbourg on 6 September 2000, Mr Erkki Liikanen, European
Commissioner responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society, and Mr
Christian Pierret, French Secretary of State responsible for Industry, will
hold a joint press conference to outline the priorities of the Commission
and the French Presidency for the coming months in the field of innovation,
competitiveness and implementation of the objectives set by the Lisbon and
Feira European Summits. Messrs Liikanen and Pierret will both deliver
keynote speeches at the Forum which will focus on how to ensure that the
European industry becomes the most dynamic and competitive industry in this
sector. Particular strategies such as increased use of the Internet, e-
commerce and intellectual property rights will be discussed in detail.
Other issues such as climate change will also be highlighted at the Forum.
MIDDAY EXPRESS
From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
© ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996
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