WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2935/97 by Nikitas KAKLAMANIS to the Council. Failure to invite Cyprus to attend the Luxembourg conference on EU enlargement
C 134/38 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 30. 4. 98 (98/C 134/44) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2935/97 by Nikitas Kaklamanis (UPE) to the Council (16 September 1997) Subject: Failure to invite Cyprus to attend the Luxembourg conference on EU enlargement The Greek Tempo-Newsweekí publication reports that the Luxembourg Presidency is organizing a conference on EU enlargement on 1 September 1997 to which all applicants for accession, apart from Cyprus, have been invited. This is a particularly strange omission. Why has Cyprus not been invited to attend? It is to be hoped that this has nothing to do with the islandís well-known ápolitical problemí the term (used by some to designate the occupation by the Turkish army of 37% of Cypriot territory), which has been further highlighted by the disregard for international law displayed by the Italian Foreign Minister Mr Dini, in his observations concerning átwo republics in Cyprusí. Answer (22 December 1997) The Luxembourg Presidency has never held a Conference on EU enlargementí, as referred to by the Honourable Member. (98/C 134/45) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2937/97 by Nikitas Kaklamanis (UPE) to the Commission (17 September 1997) Subject: Cost to European businesses of adapting to the áeuroí According to European press reports the cost of adjusting to the áeuroí could be anything up to ECU 100 000 (over Dr 30 m) for small EU enterprises. This is an excessively large amount particularly in view of the very small turnover of the companies concerned and the problem is even more acute for those situated in the outlying Member States without direct access to the Unionís chief markets, in view of their modest revenues. Has the Commission calculated the exact costs to small and medium sized EU enterprises of adjusting to the new currency and is it envisaging aid of any kind under EU programmes in meeting such costs? Answer given by Mr de Silguy on behalf of the Commission (20 November 1997) Evaluations which have been carried out on the costs to enterprises of introducing the euro have produced widely varying results, which depend on the nature of the enterprises actually investigated and the different assumptions on the modalities for the changeover. The Commission has not carried out such an evaluation, but in this context emphasises that: › while the costs to companies of introducing the euro are one-off, the benefits are much more durable: creation of a stable macroeconomic framework; completion of the single market, thus significantly facilitating trade within the Community by eliminating exchange rate uncertainty and promoting price transparency; savings on administrative expenses related to foreign currency dealings such as hedging; › as a result of the above, all companies will be better able to exploit the potential of the single European market. These benefits will be particularly pronounced for small and medium sized companies since larger firms typically have the resources to manage and negotiate international financial transactions