Quote of the Week:
"Any simple problem can be made insoluble
if enough meetings are held to discuss it"
Mitchell's Law of Committees
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ESBA WEEKLY of Friday 02 February 2001 - VOL 3 - N° 9
Headlines of WEEK 5:
- EMPLOYMENT: Employment Guidelines and Recommendations 2001
- EMPLOYMENT: World Employment Report 2001
- AGRICULTURE: Sales of beef down and EUR 971 million extra for crises
- AGRICULTURE: 2nd progress report: simplification of agri-legislation
- TRADE: 4th WTO Ministerial in November in Qatar
- GENERAL: Commission adopts working programme 2001
- FINANCIAL SERVICES: Commission launches out-of-court complaints network
- ENVIRONMENT: Public participation in environmental initiatives
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EU / EMPLOYMENT
Brussels 24/01/2001: Employment Guidelines and Recommendations 2001
The Guidelines for Member States' employment policies for the year 2001
and the Recommendations on the implementation of Member States' employment
policies were published today in the Official Journal.
Every year, a set of Guidelines are adopted for each of the identified
pillars (employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal
opportunities), which set out a number of specific targets for Member
States to achieve in their employment policies. The 2001 Guidelines are in
line with the 2000 Guidelines. An extra focus has been given to
Information Technology matters. Member States receive also each year
recommendations on how to improve their employment performance
(non-binding, but peer pressure).
More information:
www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/dat/2001/l_022/l_02220010124en00270037.pdf
www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/dat/2001/l_022/l_02220010124en00380038.pdf
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ILO / EMPLOYMENT
Geneva 24/01/2001: World Employment Report 2001
The International Labour Organisation has published its World Employment
Report 2001 - Life at Work in the Information Economy. The report
concludes that despite the communications revolution taking place in the
world today, increasing numbers of workers are unable to find jobs (160
million workers are unemployed) or gain access to the emerging
technological resources, risking to result in a widening global digital
division. The prospects for an improving global employment situation will
depend mainly on whether the current expansion of the world economy can be
expected to continue. On balance, while there are many uncertainties,
overall recent developments present a favourable set of prospects for the
world economy, according the report.
More information:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/publ/wer/index2.htm
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2001/03.htm
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EU / AGRICULTURE / BSE
Brussels 29+31/01/2001: Sales of beef down and EUR 971 million extra
Sales of beef inside the Union have plunged by 27% according the
Commission and are expected to be even lower in the future. This will put
extra stress on the escalating expenditures for the Common Agricultural
Policy. Commissioner Fischler (Agriculture) therefore urged Member States
to make use of the purchase-for-destruction scheme in order to reduce beef
production. Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer presented a
Supplementary and Amending Budget that provides for additional financing
not foreseen in the 2001 budget to deal with the BSE crisis: market
support, the destruction of animals older than 30 months and extra
co-financing for BSE tests. It will be financed from the surplus from the
previous budget year and must be adopted still by the Council and the
Parliament.
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EU / AGRICULTURE
Brussels 29/01/2001: progress report on simplification of agri-legislation
From April 1999 onwards, when the first report on was adopted, important
progress has been made in the efforts to simplify the Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP). The simplification process should reduce the administrative
workload that the CAP imposes on farmers, increase the cost effectiveness
of the CAP and reduce the risk of errors and fraud. The simplification
resulting from the exercise did not go as far as desired, and it is clear
that that much more need to be done, according the report. Aside the
initiatives such as internal guidelines, reducing the number of
regulations, simplification measures for trade mechanisms, and measures to
reform the common organisation of markets, the Commission has also
undertaken specific initiatives to reduce burdens on farmers. The "Small
Farmers Scheme" for instance, which the Commission adopted recently (see
ESBA Weekly December 2000), is a good example in this field. The proposal
will greatly simplify the system of applying and paying aids to small
farmers.
The Agricultural Council already discussed the simplification progress
report the days before and instructed the Special Agriculture Committee to
continue its examination of the "Small Farmers Scheme" with a view to
preparing the discussion as soon as possible at a future Council meeting.
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WTO / TRADE
Geneva 30/01/2001: 4th WTO Ministerial in November in Qatar
The WTO General Council decided Tuesday to hold from 5 to 9 November the
Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar. The Commission supported
this decision fully on Wednesday. Several NGO's and political parties,
such as the Friends of the Earth, Human Right Watch and the European
Greens, have criticised the decision as Qatar has a doubtful reputation in
the field of human rights, i.e. restriction on freedom of assembly and
association.
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EU / GENERAL
Brussels 31/01/2001: Commission adopts working programme 2001
The European Commission adopted on Tuesday its working programme for 2001.
The working programme consists of four major priorities: promoting new
forms of governance (white paper and continued administrative reform),
stabilising Europe and increased external relation efforts (accession
strategy, new WTO trade round), a new economic and social agenda (spring
European Council, follow-up of financial services action plan, e-Europe
action plan, start of multiannual programme for enterprise), and a better
quality of life for all (environmental action programme, sustainable
development strategy, food safety). ESBA will report further on the
workprogramme in a later stage.
The workprogramme can be found under:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/off/work_programme/index_en.htm
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EU / FINANCIAL SERVICES
Brussels 01/02/2001: Commission launches out-of-court complaints network
The European Commission has launched an out-of-court complaints network
for financial services to help businesses and consumers resolve disputes
in the Internal Market fast and efficiently by avoiding, where possible,
lengthy and expensive legal action. This network, called FIN-NET, has been
designed particularly to facilitate the out-of-court resolution of
consumer disputes when the service provider is established in an EU Member
State other than that where the consumer lives.
FIN-NET complements the EEJ-NET (European Extra-Judicial Network) which
establishes a more general network of alternative dispute resolution
mechanisms (ADRs) notified to the Commission by Member States as applying
core principles to guarantee their fairness and effectiveness.
More info on FIN-NET:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/finances/consumer/intro.htm
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EU / ENVIRONMENT
Brussels 01/02/2001: Commission's proposal for increasing public
participation in environmental initiatives
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a new Directive
providing for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain
plans and programmes relating to the environment. It also amends the
existing Directives on environmental impact assessment and on integrated
pollution prevention and control. The adoption of this proposal is a
further step towards the ratification of the Aarhus Convention (UN
Convention, concerning public participation in environmental decision
making).
Small businesses accross Europe should assess this in order to understand
if this will practically help them to have their concerns heard when
public environmental initiatives are launched in their respective
consistuencies.
For more information:
http://www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2000/en_500PC0839.pdf
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