Romania

FOR the dozen countries waiting on the European Union’s doorstep, 1995 has been a year of mixed signals.

THE summit conclusions ended with an outline plan for the EU in the coming five years “to prepare Europe for the 21st century”. Proposals include carrying out treaty reforms, meeting the single currency timetable, conducting enlargement talks with eastern and southern European applicants, reforming the budget after 1999, and continuing friendly relations with the Union’s big neighbours.

TRANSPORT ministers reached a common position on plans to liberalise ground-handling at airports from the start of 1998, but with some derogations until 2003. Under the agreement, airlines would be allowed to run ‘land-side’ services at all airports from the start of 1998. Airports with more than a million passengers every year would be required to allow client airlines the chance to organise ‘air-side’ activities from the same date. All activities would be open to competition from the start of 1999 at EU airports processing at least three million passengers annually. Those handling two million would have to open up to competition from 2001. Airports with seasonal traffic of over two million passengers over a six-month period would have to liberalise from 1999. Exemptions could be granted for two years, with extension possible for a further two years with the approval of the Commission. There would be less stringent examination by the Commission of the maintenance of duopolies than of monopolies. Exemptions lasting three years could be granted for airports not operating monopolies or duopolies, but without the option of an extension. No further derogations would be possible after 2003. Germany and Austria voted against the deal.

FOREIGN ministers of the EU, the former Soviet states, the United States and Canada tried to agree on a strategy for implementing the peace agreement in Bosnia. But there was disagreement among the 53 delegations over who should head the peace implementation office in Sarajevo of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and be responsible for the civilian aspects of the peace process. The OSCE must prepare Bosnian elections, monitor human rights in the region and introduce an arms control regime. The US nominated American diplomat Robert Frowick as OSCE mission chief.

EU concern is mounting over the safety of nuclear plants in Eastern Europe, with Bulgaria’s refusal to shut down a unit deemed highly dangerous prompting the greatest anxiety.

“EUROPE became less Nordic and more Mediterranean today”, declared Italian Foreign Minister Susanna Agnelli at the end of this week’s two-day conference in Barcelona, where 27 countries on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea pledged to draw closer economically, culturally and politically, and to form a “common area of peace and stability”.

ONE might have thought that talk of ensuring the peace in former Yugoslavia would bring the Western European Union (WEU) on to the radar screen of European initiatives, but the little-known agency seems destined to remain in the shadows.

CROATIA may be further than ever from the trade and cooperation accord it began negotiating with the EU in June.

The European Commission looks ready to admit that if enlargement to the east is to take place, further reform of its Common Agricultural Policy will be inevitable. Michael Mann reports that calls for a change to CAP, accounting for half of the EU’s total expenditure, are becoming too loud to ignore

WITH a new sun on its flag, Skopje is coming in from the cold.

A EUROPEAN Parliament amendment which would introduce tougher car-crash tests sooner if adopted by EU ministers has been taken on board by the European Commission. The Commission had originally suggested a gradual introduction of stricter tests, but has now agreed to move straight to higher standards in October 1998.

EUROPEAN steel-manufacturers are edging closer to filing a complaint with the European Commission to stop the mounting wave of low-priced imports from Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.

EU finance ministers will give their blessing next week to Finland’s programme for ‘converging’ its economy towards the targets on price and budgetary control required as the entry ticket into economic and monetary union.

GERMAN Chancellor Helmut Kohl has come under fire from the European Parliament’s women’s rights committee for his government’s decision to block the EU’s fourth equal opportunities action programme. “Coming so soon after the Beijing Women’s Conference, the German government’s decision must be bewildering for European women. Chancellor Kohl’s government will lose a lot of credibility,” says Lissy Gröner, a German member of the committee who urged Kohl to change his stand.