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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 03-09-08
From: EUROPA, the European Commission Server at <http://europa.eu.int>
CONTENTS / CONTENU
[01] Le Groupe des Sages s'attelle à la rédaction du Rapport final
[02] A picture says more than a thousand words: Commission decides on
graphic health warnings on cigarette packs
[03] Politique de cohésion de l'Union européenne en Lettonie: début des
négociations sur le document unique de programmation le 9 septembre à Riga
[04] Company taxation: Commission proposes amending Directive on taxation
of parent-subsidiary dividends
[05] Commission staff study points to external assumptions, international
environment and track record of the Commission Forecasts
[06] Autre matériel diffusé
Midday Express 08/09/2003
TXT: FR ENPDF:DOC:Midday Express 08/09/2003
[01] Le Groupe des Sages s'attelle à la rédaction du Rapport final
Le Groupe des Sages sur le Dialogue entre les Peuples et les Cultures tient
sa quatrième réunion plénière les lundi 8 et mardi 9 septembre 2003, sous
la co-présidence de Madame Assia Alaoui Bensalah et de Monsieur Jean
Daniel. Les autres membres constitutifs de ce Groupe sont: Mmes Fatima
Mernissi, Simone Susskind-Weinberger et Tullia Zevi, ainsi que MM. Malek
Chebel, Juan Diez Nicolas, Umberto ECO, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Georges Joffé,
Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd, Bichara Khader, Adnan Wafic Kassar, Pedrag
Matvejevic, Rostane Mehdi, Tariq Ramadan, Faruk Sen, Faouzi Skali.
[02] A picture says more than a thousand words: Commission decides on
graphic health warnings on cigarette packs
"Smoking can cause a slow and painful death" is one of the 14 health
warnings used on tobacco packages in the EU for which the European
Commission is now seeking colour photographs and illustrations for
cigarette packs. The Commission has adopted a Decision which opens the way
for Member States to use such pictures as part of the obligatory health
warnings on tobacco products from 1 October 2004 on. It also lays down the
conditions under which they may be used. The Commission Decision is a
follow-up to the 2001 Tobacco Products Directive (see: IP/01/702) which
already makes it obligatory to enlarge the size of health warnings on
tobacco packages: from 30 September 2003 on, they have to take the form of
large black on white text covering at least 30% of the front of the
cigarette pack and at least 40% of the back. However, the next step to use
picture warnings will not be compulsory. Third countries such as Canada and
Brazil already use hard hitting photographs, such as dying cancer patients
or diseased lungs, to illustrate their mandatory health warnings. During
the negotiations on the 2001 Directive, several EU Member States and many
Members of the European Parliament advocated the introduction of graphic
health warnings in Europe. As the Commission is responsible for setting up
a central EU library of colour photographs and other illustrations from
which Member States will be able to choose, the Commission has also
launched a tender inviting interesting parties to create and pre-test the
respective images.
[03] Politique de cohésion de l'Union européenne en Lettonie: début des
négociations sur le document unique de programmation le 9 septembre à Riga
La Commission européenne a annoncé aujourd'hui le lancement du premier
cycle de négociations avec la Lettonie sur les futures aides accordées dans
le cadre des Fonds structurels. Ces négociations commenceront le 8
septembre 2003 à Riga. Elles viseront à trouver un accord sur le document
unique de programmation (DOCUP), qui présente la stratégie et les priorités
d'action au titre de l'objectif 1 des Fonds structurels pour les années
2004 à 2006. Dans une lettre adressée le 24 juillet à Valdis Dombrovskis,
ministre des Finances, Michel Barnier, membre de la Commission chargé de la
politique régionale, a exposé les principaux axes de la position de la
Commission sur le projet de document unique de programmation présenté par
la Lettonie.
[04] Company taxation: Commission proposes amending Directive on taxation
of parent-subsidiary dividends
The European Commission has proposed to amend the European Community's
Parent-Subsidiary Directive (90/435/EEC). In particular, the Commission
proposes to broaden its scope to cover a larger range of companies, lower
from 25% to 10% the inter-company holding threshold required for the
application of its tax benefits and improve the mechanisms it provides for
the prevention of double taxation. The European Company which can be
created from 2004 (see IP/01/1376) is among the new entities proposed for
addition to the list of companies covered by the Directive. The existing
Directive, which aims to eliminate tax obstacles for groups of companies in
the EU by abolishing withholding taxes on payments of dividends between
associated companies of different Member States and preventing double
taxation of parent companies on the profits of their subsidiaries, is
limited in its effectiveness because of its narrow application. The
proposal is an element of the Commission's company tax strategy presented
in 2001 (see IP/01/1468) in which the Commission identified a number of tax
obstacles to cross-border economic activity in the Internal Market and
announced its plans for short- and long-term Community action to remove
them.
[05] Commission staff study points to external assumptions, international
environment and track record of the Commission Forecasts
While in the Commission Forecasts interest rates, exchange rates or oil
prices are treated more like assumptions, it is interesting to test their
realism. It appears that these variables are formulated in a reasonably
accurate way and that in general alternative assumptions would not improve
the picture. More specifically, the Commission approach to fixing the
exchange rate outperforms a procedure based on the use of forward exchange
rates or central parities. This implies that it would be reasonable to
continue with the current approach and include the Candidate Countries
eventually. Somewhat more attention could, however, be paid to oil futures
when setting the oil price. With respect to the direction of bias, there is
a tendency to set favourable assumptions, but this is in general not
significant in a statistical sense. In the case of one-year predictions,
the external assumptions together with the international economic
environment outside the EU can explain on average up to about 60 % of the
forecast error in EU GDP and inflation. It is larger in the case of the
2001 overestimation of EU GDP growth and the 1998 overestimation of EU
inflation. In particular an accurate assessment of world GDP and trade is
important. Wrong oil prices affect the quality of the inflation forecast.
The monetary assumptions play a lesser role, but the signal coming from
long-term interest rates influences the GDP forecast and the exchange rate
assumptions have an impact on the import price errors. This study, carried
out by economists in the Commission's Directorate General of Economic and
Financial Affairs, is available at 12.00 hrs on : http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/publications/economic_papers/economicpapers189_en.htm
[06] Autre matériel diffusé
Discours de M. Romano Prodi devant les Chefs de délégation
Speech by Viviane Reding : "Towards a European Higher Education area :
challenges, achievements and expectations (08/09, University of Ljubljana)
Discours de Michel Barnier : "Pour l'Europe de la défense » (Arcachon
20h00) A disposition dans le bureau de Amelia Torres (Brey 6/80) une
notification préalable d'une opération de concentration :
Philip Morris/Papastratos
From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
© ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996
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