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Here you can find basic information on Europe and many interesting links. EU institutions EU policy EU Future
Common foreign and security policy (CFSP) Introduction World events are constantly challenging the Union to act with the determination and cohesion expected of a world entity of its population size and economic strength. The Treaty on European Union, which came into force in November 1993, responded by fixing as a Union objective "the implementation of a common foreign and security policy including the eventual framing of a common defence policy". This is a very recent and relatively untried ambition compared with the European Union's long established constitutional responsibility to act on behalf of its Member States in the fields of external economic relations and development policies. Everyone agrees that the speed of development of a common foreign and security policy cannot be forced. Member States must see it as a natural means of furthering their national interests as well as those of the Union. Progress made so far has built on the launch in 1970 of European Political Cooperation (EPC) which has created vital habits in member States of exchanging information, consultation and policy coordination in external political relations. The Treaty on European Union has taken EPC's 25 years of experience further by creating "joint action" and "common positions" as new instruments. CFSP is carried out within the framework of the Union's institutions. Its aim is to create consistent policies which are preventive rather than reactive and which assert the EU's political identity. Decision making procedures Common positions Joint actions Titles I and V(articles J1 J11) of the Treaty on European Union Roles of the European Council and of the Council of Ministers: Role of the European Commission: is "fully associated" with the CFSP and with the tasks of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in representing the Union on CFSP matters and in implementing common measures; it shares responsibility with the Council for ensuring the consistency of the Union's external activities in general, and of policies in the areas of security,economics and development. It can make proposals, but it does not have the sole right of initiative as under orthodox Community procedures. The Commission's role in the CFSP is coordinated by Directorate General IA, but all external relations services are involved. Role of the European Parliament: the Parliament is consulted by the Presidency of the main aspects and basic choices of CFSP and is kept regularly informed on developments by the presidency and the Commission. Its Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy holds a special "colloquium" four times a year with the Presidency and its bureau meets in between with the chairman of the Political Committee (who would be the Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Member State holding the Presidency). The order in which current member States will hold the Presidency is fixed as follows: France 1st January 30th June 1995 Development and history of the European Union The European Union had its origins in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) which was founded by the Treaty of Paris in 1951. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (EEC). In addition, the European Atomic Energy Agency (Euratom) was created for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. These three communities gradually became known as the European Community (EC) and this usage was formally adopted by the European Parliament in 1978. To revitalise the European Community, the Single European Act of 1986 fixed a timetable for creating a single European market. In December 1991, the Treaty of European Union was signed and, in November 1993, the European Community became the European Union. Institutions of the European Union The European Council The Council of Ministers The European Commission The European Parliament The European Court of Justice The Court of Auditors The EU's aid and development initiatives take two forms: - regional agreements The Lom� Convention far and away the most important regional agreement, the fourth Lom� Convention is now in operation with in 1990 95 grants and loans allocations for 70 ACP countries of ECU 12 billion. The new financial protocol signed in Mauritius made available the amount of 14.6 billion ECU for the period 1995-2000. It expires in 2000, accounts for 55% of all EU aid and is financed by Member States' contributions to the European Development Fund. This is separate from the EU budget which spends about 3.5% of its total funds on aid and development cooperation. In contrast to its predecessors, the fourth convention focuses strongly on rural and agricultural development, and on financing programmes rather than individual projects. As a result of the mid term review of the Convention, main innovations are: reinforcement of the political items (democratization, rule of law, good governance,
expansion of political dialogue); Under Lom�, virtually all ACP exports enter the EU free of tariffs, while their export earnings on commodities and minerals are partially protected by stabilisation programmes. Humanitarian Aid the Commission's European Office for Emergency Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) implements food aid,emergency humanitarian aid (food, medicine, shelter etc) and aid to refugees. In recent years, assistance has been channelled to, among others, victims of the war in the former Yugoslavia and victims of conflicts in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Tadjikistan. Food Aid the EU is the second largest provider of food aid after the US, worth around ECU 600 million a year. Generalised System of Preferences GSP gives developing countries duty free access for finished and semi finished goods. A new version introduced at the beginning of 1995 is designed to encourage the industrialisation of developing countries, export diversification and higher export earnings. Project Co financing an important and original development in the EU's aid efforts is the help it gives to projects launched by Non Governmental Organisations in developing countries. These often allow small scale testing of new development methods. Market access database (direct link to excellent data base of trade barriers with sectoral & trade barriers, applied tariffs, foreign exchange measures, profit repatriation limits, tax measures etc etc all per country). There is also a possibilitity to report problems confidentially to the European Commission The EU is a customs union because its Member States apply the same tariff on goods entering their country. This ensures that all goods enter on the same terms whether in Liverpool or Marseilles. No Member State can derive a competitive advantage by applying lower tariffs because no Member State has independent legal authority over the tariffs to be charged on imports. These are fixed on an EU basis through the common commercial policy. The Commission supplements Member States export promotion efforts with a programme based on fairs, trade forums and coordinated EU initiatives. Under guidelines adopted in 1993, it is currently giving a priority to promoting exports to the Gulf and Asian countries with special attention given to China and Japan. anti dumping policy is directed against exporters selling into the EU at discriminatory prices which injure domestic producers. The EU’s anti dumping procedures have been extensively modified to bring them into line with the Uruguay Round agreements of December 1993. Usually, goods judged to be breaching the Union’s anti dumping rules have special duties imposed on them. Examples in 1995 included colour television receivers from Malaysia, China, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand,ammonium nitrate from Russia and Lithuania and photocopiers from Japan anti subsidy policy aims to prevent the sale of imported goods in the EU whose prices may be unfair because their production benefits from a state subsidy. In cases where unfair subsidies have been identified, countervailing duties may be imposed on the products. Many trading partners, many commercial agreements In addition to full participation in the multilateral negotiation and management activities of the WTO, the EU also has a broad range of commercial agreements of differing types with its many partners: - it has agreements creating customs unions with Turkey, Malta and Cyprus; - free trade agreements have been made with the four members of the European Economic Area; - ‘Europe’ agreements (also known as association agreements) have been struck with nine Central and Eastern European Countries. These aim to integrate their economies with the Union’s as quickly as possible; - preferential agreements with Mediterranean countries and, through the Lom� convention, with 69 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. These arrangements give their exports privileged access to the EU as well as financial and technical assistance; -non preferential commercial and economic cooperation agreements with many countries of Latin America and Asia - sectoral agreements such as in textiles and clothing guaranteeing Third World producers access to the EU market. Legal basis: Title VII, Articles 110 115 and Article 228 of the Treaty Role of the European Parliament: the Parliament is not formally consulted by the Council on external trade agreements,except association agreements, where its assent is needed. Role of the Council of Ministers: authorises the Commission’s negotiating mandates on commercial matters, ratifies commercial agreements by qualified majority, except for association agreements where unanimity is needed. Role of the European Commission: negotiates all external trade agreements on behalf of the Union on the basis of a mandate given by the Council. It manages those agreements and proposes appropriate legislation to the Council as and when required. For a limited period, it can also impose anti dumping measures and countervailing duties on imports that are being unfairly traded and causing damage to EU producers. The single European Currency is expected to be introduced for the public 2002, but before that governments and big companies will already be using it from1999 onwards. One view is that the Euro will become a rather weak currency, because many countries will not adhere to the criteria, but will still be allowed to participate. In case the Euro will become weaker with respect to the dollar, for example, this may trigger a flow of protectionism in the US. In case European leaders will chose to make the Euro a strong currency by means of increasing interest rates in Europe, some recession may be the result. But another view stipulates that financial markets will invest in the EURO, by shifting their reserves from the dollar, and thus some appreciation of the EURO will take place. But let's not speculare too much here. Here are some interesting links, especially on
the consequences of Euro introduction for business. The countries: The private sector But for now, have some fun with the comparison made by the Economist of december 14-20 1996 of EMU and the white rabbit of Alice, adjusted by me: - Jacques Chirac and others (looking at their watches): Oh dear, oh dear! I shall be too late. They have to reach the convergence criteria which specify among other things that no
countries with budget deficits of more than 3% of gdp can participate, unless the deficit
is close to the target or only temporarily too high. - As Alice told the king; "that is not a regular rule: you invented it just now." "it is the oldest rule in the book", said the king. "Then it ought to be number one," said Alice. But the criteria have to be loosely applied, even for Germany, because otherwise only Luxembourgh will participate. What exactly loosely means is a Humpty Dumpty attitude to language: - "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less". And when the commission and the European Monetary Institute have reported whether the criteria have been met, the heads of government, by majority vote make the choice, giving ample room for nice entertainment. - "everybody has won and all must have prizes" Eurostat, the European Commission's statistical body, approved Italy's unconventional accounting for a "Eurotax" to help the country reaching EMU targets. Last autumn, Eurostat approved France's decision to shift 37,5 bn French francs from the France telecom pension fund to the state coffers to reduce the national deficit. Countries which have reduced their deficits already within the 3% border are the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Denmark. But more and more countries follow.and 11 countries may participate (UK, Sweden and Denmark will not participate in the first stage, Greece will not fulfill the criteria). The UK will become member in the so-called Euro Council (which precooks the financial agenda), even if they don't participate in EMU. And indeed, in May 1998, 11 countries participated. Stage 1: 1980s Membership of exchange rate mechanism Germany is the largest net contributor to the EU. The table below shows that also the Netherlands pays heavily by all standards. New figures show that Netherlands is the largest net contributor. Contributions consist of a share of value added tax, import duties (in Netherlands large amount also because of port of Rotterdam) and a share of GDP. Incoming flows consist of agricultural subsidies, of which Holland receives a smaller proportion due to the fact that our farmers are efficient and do not use much land, whereas the subsidy is per acre.
in mrd ECU
as % of GDP per
capita Source: Die Welt, 17-3-1997 The creation of a single currency will be the most important development in the international monetary system since the adoption of flexible exchange rates in the early seventies. The dollar will have its first real competitor since it surpassed the pound as the world's most dominant currency. As much as $1 trillion may shift from dollars to euro's. The global economic roles of EU and US are almost identical. The EU accounts for 31% of world output and 20% of world trade, the US for 27% resp. 18%. The dollar's 40 to 60% share of world finance far exceeds the economic weight of the US. The US external economic position will raise doubts about the future stability and value of the dollar. The US has run current accounts deficits for the past 15 years. Its net foreign debt exceeds 1 trillion and is rising anually by 15 to 20 percent (despite the balanced budget deals). In contrast, the EU has roughly balanced international asset position. |
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