MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY THE SECRETARY
OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
PROSPECTS FOR THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL, FEIRA,
19-20 JUNE 2000
1. The Presidency will only finalise the
agenda for the Feira European Council after the General Affairs
Council on 13-14 June. At this stage, however, we expect the main
topics for Feira to include: the forthcoming Intergovernmental
Conference; European Defence; Economic Issues (Lisbon follow-up,
tax and Greece's application to join the euro); Western Balkans;
Enlargement; Justice and Home Affairs (including the Drugs Strategy);
and the Charter of Rights. We also expect the Feira conclusions
to cover food safety and the Northern Dimension though not necessarily
with substantive discussion at Feira itself.
IGC
2. The Presidency will report to Feira with
a summary of discussions on the three Amsterdam issues (QMV, vote
reweighting and the size/composition of the Commission). As agreed
at the Helsinki European Council, its report will also make a
recommendation on additional issues for the IGC to cover in the
second half of the year. The Government is keen to press ECJ reform,
on which discussion is already progressing well, and we expect
the Presidency also to include closer co-operation, the extension
of codecision and the composition of the European Parliament,
Economic and Social Committee, Committee of the Regions and the
European Court of Auditors. We are content to discuss all these
within the IGC.
EUROPEAN DEFENCE
3. Feira will be a key staging post on the
road to final decisions to wind up the WEU and declare an initial
EU operating capability at Nice in December. Heads at Feira will
take decisions on the basis of Presidency reports on three issues:
EU-NATO relations; the involvement of third countries; and the
case for Treaty change. Heads will also consider progress on taking
forward the headline goal on capabilities. UK objectives are:
— EU-NATO: the establishment immediately
after Feira of four EU-NATO working groups to take forward work
jointly on Berlin plus, capabilities, security issues and permanent
EU-NATO structures;
— Capabilities: a substantial report
on progress, looking forward to a Capabilities Commitment Conference
in the autumn;
— Treaty change: agreement that the
EU can carry out crisis management operations under the existing
Treaty provisions, but that a package of desirable Treaty amendments
could be incorporated into the IGC.
4. The Presidency also expect to present
two reports at Feira on civilian aspects of crisis management.
One is on the theory of setting targets for capabilities in this
area. The other proposes specific targets for international civilian
policing capabilities. The Government will want to ensure that
any targets agreed are realistic and achievable.
ECONOMIC ISSUES
5. The main economic issues likely to be
discussed at Feira are:
(a) Lisbon follow-up
6. Our priority will be to keep up the momentum.
The Lisbon conclusions trailed several significant items for delivery
at Feira, notably: the e-Europe action plan; more developed thinking
on benchmarking; and this year's set of Broad Economic Policy
Guidelines.
7. Member States also agreed to develop
a Charter for Small Firms to promote a business-friendly environment
for SMEs. The Charter should be agreed at Feira. It will raise
awareness of the concerns of small businesses within the EU, along
with action points on how Member States can improve training and
access to finance for small entrepreneurs. It will also guide
consideration of SME issues in European policy development, particularly
wherever regulation is proposed.
(b) Tax
8. Helsinki remitted ECOFIN to report back
to the European Council by Feira on the state of discussions on
the tax package.
9. The paper on exchange of information
which the Government circulated in February to the High Level
Group on taxation of savings has led to some progress in the negotiations.
In particular, we have secured recognition from the majority of
other Member States that exchange of information is the best long-term
way to tackle tax evasion. But differences remain on how to handle
in the short term the coexistence-based proposal on the table.
The report from ECOFIN to Feira is likely to reflect these developments.
(c) Greece's application to join the euro
10. Under Article 122 of the Treaty, the
final decision on Greece's application to join the euro is for
ECOFIN, following discussion in the European Council. The Commission
and the ECB have already published reports setting out that Greece
meets the Maastricht convergence criteria. The European Parliament
also gave an Opinion on 15 May. ECOFIN will discuss the Greek
application on 5 June, and submit its view to Feira. Following
the European Council discussion, ECOFIN (in the margins of Feira)
will vote on the Greek application by QMV.
WESTERN BALKANS
11. The European Council will discuss the
Balkans on the basis of a paper submitted by High Representative
Solana and Commissioner Patten. We support their efforts to reinforce
the EU's leading role in the region through their closer contact
with other international players; more frequent visits to the
Balkans; and accelerating the EU's Stabilisation and Association
agenda, including through a substantial new programme of assistance.
ENLARGEMENT
12. Heads of Government are likely to welcome
recent progress in the accession negotiations. The Helsinki Six
countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria)
will have opened between five and eight chapters each of the acquis
communautaire following the launch of negotiations in February.
The Luxembourg Six (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia,
Cyprus and Slovenia) will have opened all but two (of 31) chapters,
and provisionally closed between 10 and 15 chapters.
JUSTICE AND
HOME AFFAIRS
13. As required by the October 1999 European
Council in Tampere, the Portuguese Presidency will submit a report
to Feira on an EU strategy for external relations in the field
of justice and home affairs. The Government is working to ensure
adequate emphasis on the enlargement countries and on relations
with the Balkans, Russia, Ukraine, USA and Canada. JHA external
action is an opportunity to strengthen the EU's work on areas
of direct relevance to the citizen such as the fight against organised
crime and drugs. Effectiveness will require regular reviews, monitoring
and follow-through.
DRUGS STRATEGY
14. Feira is likely to adopt the Action
Plan implementing the EU Drugs Strategy 2000-04. The Government
is working to ensure that the Action Plan incorporates key elements
of the UK drugs initiative, launched by the Prime Minister on
9 March. These include sharing of best practice, and strengthening
the EU's co-operation with the candidate countries, eg by including
the candidates in the work of Europol.
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
15. We expect Heads to receive an oral report
from Roman Herzog, Chair of the Charter Convention drafting body,
on the Convention's progress in preparing a draft for consideration
at the Nice European Council in December. The Government believes
that, properly constructed and presented, a Charter would strengthen
the culture of rights and responsibilities within the EU. To achieve
this, the Charter should:
— be limited to existing rights, drawn
from the ECHR, the EU Treaties and common national traditions;
— be fully consistent with the ECHR
and not disturb Member States' relations with citizens in areas
of national competence;
— be consistent with other EU policies
and objectives, in particular the Conclusions of the Lisbon Summit
on economic reform and social policies.
FOOD SAFETY
16. The Presidency Conclusions will probably
draw attention to the continuing discussions on the Commission's
Food Safety White Paper of 12 January. A summary of discussions
so far will be submitted to the Feira Council, but we do not expect
the matter to be discussed. The Government supports increased
efforts to protect consumers and is working with the Commission
on the detail.
NORTHERN DIMENSION
17. The Northern Dimension Action Plan is
likely to be endorsed at Feira. It is designed to consolidate
EU relations with Russia, Poland, the Baltic States, Norway and
Iceland in areas including energy, transport, the environment,
nuclear safety, public health and social administration, trade,
business co-operation and investment promotion, and regional and
cross-border co-operation. The Action Plan—which the Government
supports—is due to be adopted at the 13 June GAC.
FEIRA EUROPEAN COUNCIL, 19-20 JUNE 2000
REFERENCES
IGC
The Helsinki European Council mandated the Portuguese
Presidency to report to Feira on progress in the JGC and to recommend
additional items for the Conference to consider.
European Defence
The report to the Helsinki European Council
contained agreement on new decision-taking structures within the
EU and also on a headline goal for European military capabilities.
There was agreement also on an action plan for non-military aspects
of security. The Helsinki European Council asked the Portuguese
Presidency to consider arrangements for EU-NATO relations, the
involvement of third countries in EU arrangements and the necessity
for change to the Treaty on European Union to accommodate new
EU capabilities. The Presidency presented a progress report to
the Lisbon European Council, which also agreed to the establishment
of a civilian crisis management committee by or at Feira.
Economic Issues
(a) Lisbon follow-up
The Lisbon European Council set out a detailed
programme in each of four areas—economic reform, employment
and skills, innovation and the modernisation of the European Social
Model.
Specifics called for either by Feira or by June
were as follows:
— Identification of indicators for
assessing performance in different fields of research and development,
in particular the development of human resources;
— The launch by both Council and Commission
of a benchmarking exercise on issues such as the length of time
and the costs involved in setting up a company;
— A European Charter for small companies;
and
— A Commission initiative on combating
social exclusion, to be combined in due course with national action
plans.
(b) Tax
ECOFIN's conclusions from December 1997 set
out a package of tax proposals: the draft Directive on the taxation
of savings; the draft Directive on the taxation of interest and
royalties; and the Code of Conduct on business taxation and fiscal
state aids. The European Council considered the state of progress
on the tax package at Vienna and Helsinki. Helsinki called for
the establishment of a High Level Group to consider unresolved
points on taxation of savings, and remitted ECOFIN to provide
a further report on the discussions to Feira.
(c) Greece's application to join the euro
Greece applied to join the euro in March.
Justice and Home Affairs
The Tampere Conclusions endorsed the need to
define clear priorities, policy objectives and measures for the
Union's external action in Justice and Home Affairs and called
for specific recommendations to be drawn up prior to the June
2000 European Council.
The Helsinki Conclusions noted the 2000-04 Drugs
Strategy and called for rapid progress on implementation. The
Tampere Conclusions called for efforts to agree common sanctions
for drug trafficking.
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
The Cologne Conclusions called for the fundamental
rights applicable at Union level to be consolidated in a Charter
and thereby made more evident.
The composition and working practices of the
Charter drafting body, called the Convention, were established
in an Annex to the Tampere Conclusions.
Food Safety
The Helsinki European Council urged the Council
to consider the Commission Food Safety White Paper quickly and
promised a progress report to the Feira European Council.
FEIRA EUROPEAN COUNCIL, 19-20 JUNE 2000
Documents Likely to be Considered at the
European Council (none yet available)
IGC
Presidency report.
EUROPEAN DEFENCE
Presidency report on EU-NATO relations.
Presidency report on role of third countries.
WESTERN BALKANS
Report from High Representative Solana and Commissioner
Patten.
JUSTICE AND
HOME AFFAIRS
Presidency Paper on a European Strategy for
External Relations in the Field of Justice and Home Affairs.
Commission Action Plan Implementing the Drugs
Strategy 2000-04.
FOOD SAFETY
Commission progress report on discussion of
Food Safety White Paper.
NORTHERN DIMENSION
Action Plan for the Northern Dimension in the
external and cross-border policies of the European Union 2000-03.
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