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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 02-04-09
From: EUROPA, the European Commission Server at <http://europa.eu.int>
CONTENTS / CONTENU
[01] Commission activates coordination mechanism on oil prices
[02] Commission closes probe into Check Point after receiving formal
undertaking regarding its distribution practices
[03] Recent opinions of SSC on BSE-related Issues
[04] L'union fait la force : la Commission demande l'adhésion de l'UE à
l'OACI et à l'OMI
[05] Les infrastructures de transport en Europe de 1990 à 1999 - 25%
d'autoroutes en plus et 4% de rails en moins dans l'UE ; une densité
d'autoroutes 6 fois plus élevée dans l'UE que dans les PEC
[06] Philippe Busquin participates in discussion about European Research
Area
[07] Autre matériel diffusé
Midday Express 09/04/2002
TXT: FR ENPDF:DOC:Midday Express 09/04/2002
[01] Commission activates coordination mechanism on oil prices
In order to monitor the current situation of the oil prices, Loyola de
Palacio, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Energy and
Transport decided today to convene a meeting of the Oil Supply Group in
Brussels on Thursday 11 April 2002. This meeting will give the opportunity
to an exchange of views between the experts from the Member States and the
Commission on the current situation of oil markets, the possible evolutions
and, if necessary, the appropriate measures to be taken. According to the
Council Directive 73/238/EEC of 24 July 1973, the Commission can convene
this group of experts, if difficulties arise with regard to supply of crude
oil and petroleum products in the European Union or one of the Member
states.
[02] Commission closes probe into Check Point after receiving formal
undertaking regarding its distribution practices
The European Commission has closed an investigation into a complaint
against Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. after the Israeli software
company undertook not to engage in exclusionary supply practices with its
distributors. Check Point is one of the world's main players in selling
firewall and virtual private network (VPN) software that protects corporate
networks from hacking. The Commission had received a complaint from rival
Finnish firm Stonesoft that Check Point's distribution practices were
unfairly excluding it from the market.
[03] Recent opinions of SSC on BSE-related Issues
On 5 April 2002, the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) adopted two
opinions on the issue of BSE in small ruminants, i.e. sheep and goats. A
first opinion suggests a strategy to investigate the possible presence of
BSE in small ruminants in sheep and goats that tested positive for scrapie
under the improved TSE surveillance programme that started on 1 April 2002
in the European Union. A second opinion states that, should BSE in small
ruminants become probable, a risk management strategy only based on the
exclusion of certain Specified Risk Materials would no longer be justified.
Appropriate product safety should be achieved by combining different
approaches. Under the current situation of no evidence of BSE being present
in small ruminants, the SSC sees no reasons to amend the list of Specified
Risk Materials to be removed from the food chain. The SSC also discussed
the recent paper from the Stanley Prusiner team indicating that certain
skeletal muscles of scrapie-infected mice contain infectivity and may
reproduce prions. The Committee concludes that the boundary conditions of
the research do not justify its straight extrapolation to BSE-in-cattle
conditions. The results of infectivity experiments with regard to the
presence of TSE infectivity in muscles of cattle and sheep, including the
recent AFSSA work reported on 27 March 2002, were all consistently negative
so far and there is currently no reason to revise the SSC opinions with
regard to the safety of bovine and sheep muscles. The opinions are
published on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/ssc/outcome_en.html
[04] L'union fait la force : la Commission demande l'adhésion de l'UE à
l'OACI et à l'OMI
La Commission européenne demande aujourd'hui au Conseil de l'autoriser à
négocier l'adhésion de l'Union européenne à l'Organisation de l'Aviation
Civile Internationale (OACI) et l'Organisation Maritime Internationale
(OMI). Grâce à cette adhésion, l'UE sera enfin partie prenante dans ces
organisations internationales importantes dans des domaines de sa
compétence, mais où elle ne dispose pour l'instant que d'un strapontin
d'observateur.
[05] Les infrastructures de transport en Europe de 1990 à 1999 - 25%
d'autoroutes en plus et 4% de rails en moins dans l'UE ; une densité
d'autoroutes 6 fois plus élevée dans l'UE que dans les PEC
Selon un rapport sur l'évolution des infrastructures de transport en Europe
publié aujourd'hui par Eurostat, la longueur du réseau autoroutier de l'UE
s'est accrue de plus de 25% entre 1990 et 1999 pour atteindre près de
50.000 km en 1999. La longueur du réseau ferroviaire a été, quant à elle,
réduite de 4% au cours des années 1990 et atteignait près de 154.000 km en
1999. La densité d'autoroutes au sein de l'UE était en 1999 six fois plus
importante que celle constatée en moyenne dans les pays d'Europe centrale
candidats à l'adhésion (PEC). Par contre, la densité du réseau ferroviaire
y était inférieure d'un quart.
[06] Philippe Busquin participates in discussion about European Research
Area
Tomorrow, the German research organisation Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft will
organise a discussion and science show to outline how national research
organisations could participate in the European Research Area that
Commissioner Philippe Busquin proposed to create in February 2000. The aim
of this strategy is to network European centres of scientific excellence
thus creating the critical mass in terms of knowledge and finance to make
European science more competitive and attractive to scientists from the
entire world. The European Research Area is also part of the strategy to
make Europe the most competitive knowledge society worldwide. The
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is a German, publicly funded organisation for
applied research. Its 56 research institutes cover mainly applied research
in various technology fields but also in other disciplines such as
environment, energy, and economic studies. The annual research budget of
the organisation is €1 billion. A press conference with Commissioner
Philippe Busquin and the president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Hans-
Jürgen Warnecke, will be held on Wednesday, 10 April, 17h00 at the Hotel Le
Plaza, Bd. Adolphe Max 118-126, Brussels.
[07] Autre matériel diffusé
Information note on Commission funded humanitarian activities in the
Palestinian Territories
Opening remarks by Erkki Liikanen at the third European Forum for
Innovative Enterprises (08/04, Stockholm)
From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
© ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996
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