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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 03-10-02

Midday Express: News from the EU Commission Spokesman's Briefings Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: EUROPA, the European Commission Server at <http://europa.eu.int>


CONTENTS / CONTENU

  • [01] Commission proposes EU action to protect European eels
  • [02] L'Agence Européenne de la Sécurité Aérienne prend son envol
  • [03] Anna Diamantopoulou before European Parliament's Social Affairs Committee and Women's Rights Committee
  • [04] Nitrates in the Netherlands : Commission welcomes European Court ruling
  • [05] August 2003 : industrial producer prices up by 0.2% in euro-zone and EU15
  • [06] Commission clears sweetener joint venture between Arla Foods and Nordzucker
  • [07] Commission clears acquisition of Tamro by Phoenix
  • [08] EU-ACPs : opening of trade negotiations with West and Central Africa
  • [09] Autre matériel diffusé Midday Express 02/10/2003 TXT: FR ENPDF:DOC:Midday Express 02/10/2003

  • [01] Commission proposes EU action to protect European eels

    The European Commission has adopted a Communication on the development of an EU Action Plan for the management of European eels. This stock is currently outside safe biological limits. This is mostly due to fishing at unsustainable levels and the effects of other human activity on the eels' habitats and migratory patterns. As eels are to be found at various stages of their life-cycle in the waters of the northern Atlantic and then in fresh and brackish waters in almost all of Europe and northern Africa, coordinated conservation measures are needed to safeguard the stock. This is why the Commission proposes that eel management be built up from a set of local actions to be put in place by the Member States according to an agreed standard. These actions should ensure the survival and the migration of the eel in all its habitats. While this plan is being developed, the Commission will propose urgent measures to ensure that mature eels can migrate back to the sea to spawn. The Commission intends to formulate the urgent measures at the beginning of next year and the long-term management system at the end of 2004.

    [02] L'Agence Européenne de la Sécurité Aérienne prend son envol

    L'Agence Européenne de la Sécurité Aérienne est opérationnelle depuis le 28 septembre 2003. "La Commission européeen se réjouit que l'Agence puisse commencer dès maintenant ses activités de certification", a déclaré Loyola de Palacio, Vice-Présidente en charge de l'Energie et des Transports. "Grâce à l'Agence, l'encadrement du haut niveau de sécurité et de protection environnementale dont bénéficient déjà les passagers aériens et les citoyens de l'Union sera significativement renforcé. Quant à l'industrie aérienne, elle verra ses coûts diminuer grâce à la délivrance par l'Agence de certificats uniques, reconnus dans l'ensemble de l'Union."

    [03] Anna Diamantopoulou before European Parliament's Social Affairs Committee and Women's Rights Committee

    Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, today appeared before two European Parliament Committees to give the current state of play in European employment and social affairs. She set out the priorities for the year ahead, including the protection of workers' data, working time, the health and safety strategy, consultation on the revision of the Works Council Directive and finalisation of the modification of the regulation on social security for migrant workers.

    [04] Nitrates in the Netherlands : Commission welcomes European Court ruling

    The European Commission welcomes today's ruling by the European Court of Justice against the Netherlands over water pollution by nitrates. The Court has upheld all Commission arguments that the Netherlands has not taken strict enough measures to control agricultural practices that lead to excessive nitrate levels. High amounts of nitrates in surface waters cause damaging algal blooms, and in drinking water they present a risk to public health. Under the EU Nitrates Directive, Member States are required to implement action programmes to combat nitrate pollution by agriculture. The Court found that the action programme of the Netherlands suffers from several shortcomings, notably : the Court rejects the use of the loss-based system, known as MINAS (Mineralenaangiftesysteem) to control nitrate pollution under the Directive. In order to combat pollution at source, the directive requires clear limits on the amount of nitrogen fertilizers applied to land. In contrast MINAS does not set such limits but instead tries to control pollution by imposing levies on farmers for nitrogen losses to the environment. The Court also found that the Netherlands had not established rules clearly limiting the quantities of manure spread on land to the maximum amounts of 170 kilo/hectare set in the Directive. Further weaknesses were also found. Commenting on the Court ruling, Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström said : "We will be examining carefully the details of this welcome judgement. We look forward to receiving a revised action plan from the Netherlands in order to clear up the shortcomings that the Court has found. This will also allow us to make further progress in the constructive discussions that have already taken place on a possible derogation for the Netherlands." Today's decision reinforces the efforts that the Commission is making to reduce the nitrate load to surface waters and ground-waters across the EU.

    [05] August 2003 : industrial producer prices up by 0.2% in euro-zone and EU15

    The euro-zone industrial producer price index increased by 0.2% in August 2003 compared with the previous month, Eurostat estimates today. EU15 prices also increased by 0.2%. In July 2003 prices rose by 0.1% in the euro- zone and remained unchanged in the EU15. In August 2003 compared to August 2002, industrial producer prices increased by 1.4% in the euro-zone and 1.5% in the EU15. For the first time this month, data for the Acceding Countries are included in Annex.

    [06] Commission clears sweetener joint venture between Arla Foods and Nordzucker

    The European Commission has granted clearance under the Merger Regulation to the creation of a joint venture between Danish/Swedish company Arla Foods Ingredients amba (AFI) and German sugar company Nordzucker AG. The venture will manufacture and distribute a new sweetener product called Gaio®-tagatose for which AFI holds the patent. (The operation, notified on 1 September 2003, was examined under the simplified merger review procedure)

    [07] Commission clears acquisition of Tamro by Phoenix

    The European Commission has granted clearance under the Merger Regulation to the acquisition of full control of the Finnish pharmaceutical distributor Tamro Oyj by German pharmacist Phoenix International Beteiligungs GmbH. (The operation, notified on 29 August 2003, was examined under the simplified merger review procedure)

    [08] EU-ACPs : opening of trade negotiations with West and Central Africa

    The EU and the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries will give a strong push to their joint trade and development plans with the launch of negotiations for Economic and Partnership Agreements between the EU and the Western and Central African regions. Ahead of this event, on 2 October 2003, European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Development Commissioner Poul Nielson will meet with Trade Ministers of the 77 ACP countries. They will take stock of results of the first phase of the negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA), covering all-ACPs, which were launched in September 2002 and discuss how to progress with regional EPA negotiations between the EU and individual ACP regions. The two Commissioners will then travel to Africa to launch regional negotiations with Central Africa in Brazzaville on 4 October 2003 and with West Africa in Cotonou on 6 October 2003.

    [09] Autre matériel diffusé

    Speech by Erkki Liikanen : "How can Europe trigger and seize the opportunities ahead ?" at the IST 2003 opening plenary session (Milan)

    Speech by David Byrne : "Progress in building consumer protection" at the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy Committee of the European Parliament

    La proposition de règlement sur les allégations nutritionnelles et de santé: mythes et malentendus


    From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
    © ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996


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