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MEPs today in a non-binding vote, rejected as too complex a proposal coming from the ECB to replace the current voting system on the Board with a "rotation" system allocating each National Central Bank governor to one of three groups, reflecting the size of the economy in the country concerned. Instead Parliament backed the proposal of the rapporteur Ingo FRIEDRICH (EPP-ED, D) for the retention of existing voting rights for all Central Bank governors and the continuation of decisions by the Governing Board to be taken by a simple majority. For the future, however, MEPs want the Convention to come up with a solution based on an enlarged Executive Board comprising nine members and representative of the eurozone economy as a whole taking operational decisions such as changes in interest rates, with broader monetary policy strategy decisions to be taken by the Governing Council on the basis of a "double majority", of "one person, one vote" and a second vote taking into account the state's population size, GDP and the strength of the financial sector.

The Commission and any interested Member State are requested to submit new proposals to the Convention reflecting this approach. This new system could then be adopted by the Inter-governmental Conference.

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Paula Fernández Hervás
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e-mail :   econ-press@europarl.eu.int

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The House adopted a non-binding resolution with 451 votes in favour, 1 against and 16 abstentions on the freezing of funds and economic resources directed against certain persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida network and the Taliban as set out in Council regulation EC/881/2002 of 27 May 2002. The freezing measures were imposed in conformity with Resolutions 1267, 1333 and 1390 of the UN Security Council. By means of Resolution 1452 of 20 December 2002, the Security Council decided that provision has to be made for certain exceptions to the freezing of funds and economic resources. These exceptions should be granted on grounds of humanitarian need.
Regulation EC/881/2002 should, therefore, be amended accordingly. In the Commission proposal, an exception is made to the freezing of funds if: any of the competent authorities of the Member States has determined, upon request made by an interested natural or legal person, that the use of these funds or economic resources is: - necessary to cover basic expenses; - intended exclusively for payment of reasonable professional fees and reimbursement of incurred expenses associated with the provision of legal services; - necessary for extraordinary expenses, where sufficient justification is given; the UN Sanctions Committee has not objected within 48 hours.

Parliament approves the proposal, but adds that "reasons shall be given for any freezing of assets under this Regulation by the competent authorities of the Member States". Furthermore, Parliament decided that natural and legal persons, entities and bodies may submit a petition to the competent authorities in the Member States and to the Commission requesting that persons and entities should be deleted from the list of people and institutions whose funds are to be frozen. The Member State which received the petition shall maintain contacts with the government which proposed putting those people and institutions on the list and may communicate to the Sanctions Committee any request for the de-listing of persons and entities.

Parliament adds an article stating that within two years of its entry into force, Member States shall assess the legality and effectiveness of this Regulation.

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Pia Siitonen
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e-mail :   libe-press@europarl.eu.int

The European Parliament adopted by an overwhelming majority (414 votes in favour, 44 votes against and 11 abstentions) a resolution regretting the joint declaration by US and EU officials of 19 February which allows European airlines to transfer data on passengers flying to the US to US Customs personal. According to Parliament this constitutes an infringement of the European directive on the protection of personal data. It wants the European Commission to suspend this "agreement", which is considered to lack any legal basis. In the meantime Parliament will determine if an action may be brought before the European Court of Justice.

The Commission had entered into talks with the US authorities on the transfer of airline passenger data, as European airlines faced severe US sanctions if they did not comply with measures laid down in US laws which had been adopted after the attacks of 11 September. Parliament was not informed in due time of these talks. MEPs also object that passengers are not informed of the fact that their personal data are being transferred and do not have the possibility to give their consent, as is provided for by the European directive on data protection.

In a plenary debate on Wednesday, Commissioners Chris Patten and Frits Bolkestein acknowledged Parliament should have been informed earlier, but stressed that discussions with the US authorities were still under way. They left open the possibility to proceed according to article 25 of the European directive on data protection, which mandates the European Commission to determine if data to be transferred to third parties will be protected in an "adequate" fashion. In that case, Parliament would have to decide whether this data protection is indeed adequate.

Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Rights will hold a hearing on this matter on 25 March.

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Marjory van den Broeke
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In adopting a resolution on the ESDP operation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Parliament welcomes the Council's decision to take over the NATO operation 'Allied Harmony' in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as the EU's first-ever military mission. However, MEPs are critical that had not been informed in advance about the mandate, the capabilities needed and the financial implications. Moreover, MEPs state that Parliament should be informed on all aspects of this and future missions.

The cost of the mission this year is €4.3 million paid for by the Member States. Future missions, MEPs say, should be financed on a joint basis from both the EU's and Member States' budgets.
Lastly, Parliament considers that a fact-finding delegation should be sent to FYROM two months after the start of the operation in order to establish a progress report to evaluate the efficiency of the operation in relation to the above question.

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Joëlle Fiss
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Parliament adopted an own initiative report on gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament. Proposals for the Parliament include setting up a High-Level Group on Gender Equality to be chaired by the Parliament's President; mainstreaming gender in the committees' and delegations' work; incorporating the gender perspective in all policy areas, including the use of gender-neutral language in Parliamentary texts; organising work programmes and assessments of committee implementation of gender mainstreaming; equalising the gender-balance in decision-making; and providing adequate financial and human resources. Measures are intended to advance gender mainstreaming throughout the European Parliament, not only in political and legislative work but within administration as well.

Parliament, in particular, emphasises the need for awareness-raising and training, as well as an examination of working arrangements, including the reconciliation of work and family life, for both women and men.

An additional point has been incorporated in the report concerning giving unconditional priority to the under-represented gender for appointment and promotion, after it was deemed by the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market to be at variance with the case-law of the Court of Justice.

It is hoped that these proposals will contribute to the overall aim of gender mainstreaming, which is to create a fairer and more democratic society which allows both men and women to participate and recognises their diversity. The European Parliament considers, as the European institution closest to citizens, should lead the way in this field. Indeed, the Parliament still has some way to go, with recent figures suggesting that despite a steady increase in the percentage of women in the European Parliament, they are still largely under-represented in positions of authority and responsibility.

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With fraud and irregularities against the EU budget estimated at €1.275bn for 2001, the Parliament adopted a resolution which looks to the Commission to improve procedures for tackling fraud and indeed recovering funds wrongly paid out. Indeed, the recovery rate in 2001 amounted to just 15.7% or slightly more than €40m.

MEPs conclude that the procedures for the recovery of wrongly paid EU funds do not work, particularly where the Structural Funds are concerned. Italy is singled out, with MEPs saying it is unacceptable for the Commission to consider offering this country special treatment in view of the sum outstanding (EU €1.4 billion).

With regard to ongoing cases, MEPs are calling on the Commission to halt cooperation with “Europrogramme” and “Eurocost”, two companies involved in irregularity charges relating to contracts. They are asking whether any senior officials of Eurostat who might be involved will be required to make good any losses suffered by the taxpayer. Turning to alleged cases of favouritism, Parliament welcomes the fact that the Commission has acted on Parliament's recommendation regarding possible breaches of her obligations by ex-Commissioner Edith Cresson.

MEPs also highlight new issues raised by enlargement. MEPs stress the need to set up OLAF offices in the new Member States and call for measures to be taken to deal with the growth of financial crime in the Kaliningrad region.

Regarding the OLAF Supervisory Committee, MEPs welcome its "crucial contribution" in a difficult environment but they regard it as "entirely unacceptable" that the appointment of OLAF's members should have been delayed by Italy and call for them to be re-appointed to their posts.

Press enquiries:
Philippe Kamaris
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Press enquiries:
Jean-Yves Loog
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The Parliament adopted a non-legislative report by Phillip WHITEHEAD (East Midlands) on the Commission's policy paper on consumer policy for the years 2002-2006. It is calling on the Commission to put more meat on the bones - through more practical measures - in its new EU Consumer Policy Strategy.

The new strategy proposed by the Commission sets out three mid-term objectives. The first aims to achieve a high common level of consumer protection which means harmonising not just the safety of goods and services, but also addressing the economic and legal issues that give consumers the necessary confidence to conduct transactions anywhere in the internal market. The second, effective enforcement of consumer protection rules, means that consumers should, in practice, be given the same protection throughout the EU. In order to achieve the third goal - greater involvement of consumer organisations in EU policies - the main measures will include a review of ways for consumer organisations to participate in EU policy-making and the setting up of education and capacity-building projects.

While supporting these three main objectives, the Parliament passed a number of amendments recommending more concrete measures. It asks for particular priority to be given to legislation on the safety of services, the CE mark system, revision of the toys directive, a directive on fire safety in hotels, the EU timeshare directive, extension of consumer protection measures from the air transport sector to other modes of transport, improving health and safety in the evaluation of chemical substances, the package travel directive and the promotion of consumer confidence in e-commerce . It also stresses that a single market in financial services - such as insurance, investment and banking - should be developed to the benefit of consumers. In addition, MEPs want to raise the profile of Community ecolabels in order to help consumers make informed choices. They also call on the Commission to promote the use of labelling at the WTO so that consumers are informed about the origin of products and production methods.

The Parliament adopted also some amendments calling on the Commission to integrate consumer protection into all relevant EU policy areas as the fourth objective. On another front, since many EU consumers are not fully aware of their rights in the Internal Market, MEPs urge the Commission to improve ways of informing consumers about these rights.

On one point however, MEPs think the Commission is going too far. The principle of minimum harmonisation for consumer protection policy is enshrined in the Treaty. The Parliament is therefore concerned at the Commission's proposal to adapt existing EU consumer directives across-the-board 'from minimum harmonisation to full harmonisation'. It argues instead that the need for minimum or maximum harmonisation should be assessed case-by-case.

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The Parliament adopted a non-legislative report by Béatrice PATRIE (PSE, FR) on the Commission Green Paper on the future of the EU consumer protection and a follow-up communication on the results of public hearings, governments’, consumer organisations’ and businesses’ reactions to the proposal.

The Commission is proposing to reform the EU consumer protection legislation and says that the current status quo is holding back the internal market for consumers and businesses. The Commission says that the response it has got on the Green Paper has given it full support to develop a proposal for a framework directive based on full harmonisation and fair commercial practices.

The Parliament supports the aim of harmonising legislation on trading practices. This should be done in a coherent way by setting the general framework first and only afterwards establishing vertical legislation on specific practices, such as sales promotion. It also points out that the harmonisation approach should not result in a lowering of the level of protection to consumers achieved under certain national arrangements .

The Parliament thinks that introducing a general clause on fairness vis-à-vis the consumer into the framework directive is a good idea and supports the concept that the directive should deal mainly with practices which cause detriment to consumers. The general clause on fairness should be based on precise and objective criteria in order to avoid differing interpretations in the legislation or case law of the Member States. The Parliament considers it appropriate, in the interests of establishing a single corpus of harmonised general rules, to incorporate into the framework directive certain provisions of existing directives, such as those covering misleading advertising. The House recommends that the framework directive should give further practical examples of individual unfair trading practices .

MEPs also emphasise the need to enable the consumer to make an informed choice and therefore stress the need to include in the fairness criteria the duty always to provide consumers with prior and detailed information on e.g. content and origin in the case of foodstuff and the presence of dangerous substances in consumer goods.

Press enquiries:
Leena Maria Linnus
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In adopting a non-legislative report by Marianne THYSSEN (EPP-ED, B) Parliament welcomes the Commission Green Paper on the future of EU consumer protection but MEPs are emphasising the need for simpler, more understandable and better focused legislation that would be easier to enforce. Parliament in particular notes that, despite progress, internal market legislation as a whole is inconsistent and not transparent enough to enjoy consumer confidence.

On the eternal conflict between maximum and minimum harmonisation, MEPs acknowledge that the former can be effective in ironing out the fragmentation of business and consumer legislation. However, they say that until the Commission has drawn up an impact study on maximum harmonisation, it should indicate, on a case-by-case basis, why it has opted for one or the other forms of harmonisation.

Regarding the mutual recognition and the country of origin principles, MEPs point out that these can only be satisfactorily implemented once a sufficient degree of harmonisation and a high level of protection have been achieved .

On the idea suggested in the Green Paper of developing a framework directive on fair commercial practices MEPs consider that such a directive should be supplemented by a full range of specific directives or regulations; in order to facilitate interpretation, they also propose that it should be accompanied by a non-exclusive black-list of practices that may jeopardise consumer interests.

As to the idea of establishing European codes of conduct, MEPs say these should be in addition to, and not a substitute for, legislation. Signing up to such codes in the first place must be voluntary, but at the same time these codes must be made enforceable: any infringement of a voluntarily accepted code of conduct should be treated as equivalent to an unfair practice and be penalised by arbitration bodies or courts.

Lastly, Parliament repeats its call for a coordinated approach between the consumer protection framework directive and the regulation on sales promotions.

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Nikolaos Tziorkas
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Under new rule 110a, any legislative proposal (first reading) and any non-legislative motion for a resolution adopted in committee with fewer than one-tenth of the members of the committee voting against, shall be placed on the draft agenda of Parliament for vote without amendment.

The item shall then be subject to a single vote unless, before the drawing up of the final draft agenda, political groups or individual Members who together constitute one-tenth of the Members of Parliament have requested in writing that the item be open to amendment, in which case the President shall fix a deadline for tabling amendments.

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In the wake of a spate of factory relocations by numerous European and multinational companies taking advantage of grants and aid in poor regions of the EU, especially Portugal, only to close down plants later with inevitable redundancies, MEPs adopted a joint resolution tabled by the PES, EPP-ED, GUE/NGL, UEN and Green Groups which takes the view that state aid be linked to long term agreements, especially in terms of guaranteeing jobs.

In addition, the Commission is urged to refuse aid under EU programmes to companies abusing the system. The Commission is also requested to draw up a Code of Conduct designed to prevent companies, which have already benefited from aid in one country from shifting locations in the EU or to the candidate countries, with the sole purpose of obtaining new subsidies.

EU Structural Fund assistance should be conditional on guarantees for long term employment. MEPs also want the Commission to monitor relocations closely through the European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC) and to force companies not respecting their obligations to repay EU aid.

The resolution singles out numerous companies: C&J Clark, Gerry Weber, Bagir, Sasimac, Schuh-Union, Scottwool, Ecco’let, Bawo, Rohde, Philips, Yasaki Saltano, Efacec, Eres, Efect, Alcoa, Delphy and Alcatel and asks the Commission to check to see that they have respected EU legislation relating to collective redundancies. The companies concerned, therefore, are requested to seek solutions to the jobs question through discussions with workers' representatives and local authorities.

Press enquiries:
Roy Worsley
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Parliament adopted a joint resolution with 82 votes in favour, 0 against and 0 abstenstions condemning the acts of violence and intimidation taking place during the pre-election period (general elections will be held on 27 July 2003). MEPs ask for all parties to be able to check the veracity of the electoral lists well before the start of the voting. Parliament underlines that, in order for the elections to be considered free, fair and democratic, the lives of opposition leaders must be safeguarded failing which the co-operation agreement with the EU will be cancelled. The House calls on the Cambodian Government to reverse its decision to bar Christian groups from presenting religious propaganda. Lastly, Parliament also condemns the unilateral decision by the Phnom Penh government to seal all landborder crossing with Thailand and expresses concern that the border closure will affect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of poor Cambodian citizens.

In adopting a joint resolution on Burma. MEPs urge the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to revive the process of dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi in order to resolve the severe problems Burma is currently facing, including the banking crisis. MEPs support Prime Minister Thaksin of Thailand in his efforts at mediation between the SPDC and the ethnic nationalities and urge the Thai Government to facilitate the negotiations within Thailand. The House also urges the SPDC to immediately and unconditionally release Sai Nyunt Lwin, the Secretary-General of the Shan Nationalities' League for Democracy and for the military government to release all remaining political prisoners. MEPs stress the need to implement strictly laws banning the use of forced labour and allowing the ILO unrestricted access to areas of the country where the use of forced labour is being reported. The House strongly urges the SPDC to stop the systematic use of rape against ethnic women as a weapon of repression and calls on the Commission to bring these cases before the UN and demand that an independent international inquiry be set up. Finally, MEPs calls on the Commission to ensure that support for humanitarian aid is done without political interference by the military, and that international NGOs are involved.

Parliament adopted a joint resolution on the case of Amina Lawal, a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Nigeria. The House expresses its categorical opposition to the death penalty and urges the Nigerian Government to take all steps to ensure that all executions are halted and the use of the death penalty is ended. Furthermore, MEPs call on the Upper Sharia Court of Appeal of Katsina to uphold its commitment to all the international agreements that Nigeria has signed up to in its human rights field and asks therefore that all elements of Sharia law that contradict international law be repealed.