15-19 September European Parliament plenary session

Date: 25/09/1997

A FAR greater effort must be made to advance the cause of equal opportunities in the European Union, according to MEPs. Passing judgement on the EU's first annual report monitoring progress in establishing greater equality between men and women, Euro MPs complained that the survey had ignored key areas such as violence against women, women and health and the environment, and even the Intergovernmental Conference. They urged future exercises to focus more on developments over the previous 12 months, contain a wider range of examples from member states and provide data which could help form the basis of future strategy.

THE European Commission's first action plan for innovation in Europe won the Parliament's approval, although MEPs warned that no standard model could be imposed on different elements of the Union's economy. Instead, they insisted that “regions, companies, organisations and citizens must find their own paths to innovation”, possibly with the help of tax incentives and by keeping barriers to growth to a minimum. They also welcomed Commission efforts to set up a bench-marking system for comparative evaluation among firms.

THE 89 countries which recently agreed in Oslo on the need for a legal ban on the production, stockpiling, use and transfer of anti-personnel mines were congratulated by the Parliament. But MEPs regretted the decision of the United States to withdraw from the Ottawa process working towards a world-wide ban on land-mines. They also urged EU members Finland and Greece, who are participating only as observers in the negotiations, to sign the eventual treaty and directed the same message specifically at Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Iraq and Turkey.

MEPs backed the cause of banana producers in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and called on the Union to continue arguing its case before the World Trade Organisation, which recently ruled that the EU's import scheme was incompatible with international trade rules. The WTO gave its negative decision after receiving a complaint from the US and four Latin American countries. Euro MPs insisted that the trade preferences granted to ACP producers by the Union were designed to help the countries' economic development and urged the EU to work for “a revision of the WTO mechanisms and its procedures for settling disputes”.

TOUGHER action, backed by sanctions, should be taken by the Union against illegal imports of CFC products, which damage the ozone layer, said MEPs. The targets of the Parliament's anger were China and Russia, the source of 150 tons of CFCs which entered the Union illegally in July. The Parliament supported the World Bank's plans to create a fund to help Russia close its CFC factories, which now have a production capacity of 140,000 tons a year.

STRASBOURG will host 11 parliamentary plenary sessions next year and Brussels six. The calendar for the MEPs' meetings in the Alsatian capital is: 12-16 January, 16-20 February, 9-13 March, 30 March - 3 April, 11-15 May, 15-19 June, 13-17 July, 14-18 September, 19-23 October, 16-20 November, 14-18 December. Mini-sessions will be held in Brussels on 28-29 January, 29-30 April, 27-28 May, 1-2 July, 4-5 November, 2-3 December.

ENCOURAGEMENT for Japan to play a greater role on the world stage emerged during the week as MEPs sketched out how to strengthen the Union's bilateral relations with one of the world's major economic players. They also called on Tokyo to continue its trade deregulation programme.