European Parliament resolution on the Commission's annual legislative programme for 2000
29. 12. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 377/323 Thursday 16 March 2000 1. Approves the Commission proposal as amended; Asks to be consulted again should the Commission intend to amend its proposal substantially or 2. replace it with another text; 3. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and Commission. 2. EC-Mexico association agreement * A5-0066/2000 European Parliament legislative resolution on the proposal for a Council decision on the Commun- ity position within the EC-Mexico Joint Council on the implementation of Articles 3, 4, 5, 6 and 12 of the Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related matters (5965/1/2000 + COM(2000) 9 + C5-0076/2000 + 2000/0024(CNS)) (Consultation procedure) The European Parliament, # having regard to the proposal for a Council decision (COM(2000) 9 # 5965/1/2000), # having regard to Annexes I to XVI and Joint Declarations I to XV (COM(2000) 9), # having regard to Article 47(2), last sentence, Article 55 and Article 133 of the EC Treaty, # having been consulted by the Council pursuant to Article 300(3), first subparagraph, of the EC Treaty (C5-0076/2000), # having regard to Rules 67 and 97(7) of its Rules of Procedure, # having regard to the report of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (A5-0066/2000) 1. Approves the proposal for a Council decision; Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and the Commission and to the govern- 2. ments and parliaments of the Member States and the United Mexican States. 3. Annual legislative programme B5-0228, 0229 and 0230/2000 European Parliament resolution on the Commission’s annual legislative programme for 2000 The European Parliament, # having regard to the interinstitutional declaration on democracy, transparency and subsidiarity of 25 October 1993 by the European Parliament, the Council and Commission (1), A. noting the Commission’s work programme, which constitutes an indispensable interinstitutional instrument for the programming and coordination of the Union’s activities in a transparent and effi- cient way, B. whereas the European Parliament has powers to monitor implementation of the legislative programme at certain intervals, while being closely involved in defining political priorities and in monitoring implementation of the requisite measures, (1) OJ C 329, 6. 12. 1993, p. 133. C 377/324 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 29. 12. 2000 Thursday 16 March 2000 1. Encourages the Commission to pursue its efforts to improve the legislative planning process and asks it to include in the annual work programme, for the sake of comprehensiveness and efficiency, all the proposals and actions proposed, the legislative proposals under way and the report on the implementation of the Commission programme for the previous year; 2. Calls on the Commission to use its right of initiative not only to propose new initiatives but also to revitalise the legislative proposals pending before the Council and to keep Parliament informed of the reason for the impasse in each case; Calls on the Commission to ensure, before submission of any new proposal, that such proposals 3. comply with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality; Calls on the Commission to schedule more stringently than in the past the codification of Commun- 4. ity law and to submit specific proposals for the future; Regrets that, despite Parliament’s right to ask the Commission to submit any appropriate proposals 5. on matters on which it considers that a Community act is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaty, the Commission has so far shown very little diligence in following up Parliament’s requests by presenting a legislative proposal; Foreign and security policy and multilateral trade Encourages and supports the Commission’s efforts to pursue its internal restructuring with a view to 6. developing its ability to deliver results in the field of conflict prevention and crisis management effectively and on time in order to meet the new goals set in the Amsterdam Treaty; In this connection, asks the Commission to review and identify non-military crisis-response tools 7. such as humanitarian aid, monitoring of the democratic process: electoral follow-up, institution-rehabilita- tion and public security, and to establish effective mechanisms for rapid coordination and deployment, bearing in mind the need to adapt decision-making processes, especially those involving financial decisions; 8. Urges the Commission to provide for rapid emergency aid to Mongolia, under the agreement with that country via the TACIS Programme, in order to combat the suffering of humans and livestock in Mongolia caused by the extreme cold (−45 °C); 9. Urges the Commission to prepare the creation of a special budget fund for civil crisis intervention and to present a plan ensuring that sufficient amounts are available in future EU budgets to respond to civil crisis situations; Urges the Commission to begin a comprehensive debate on the restructuring of the external repre- 10. sentation of the EU which should respond efficiently to the needs of a future European foreign policy; 11. Welcomes the initiative for the protection of the Community’s financial interests outside the Union in the form of a cooperation agreement with Switzerland; hopes that this type of initiative will speedily be extended to other countries, especially those that benefit from substantial financial assistance from the Community; Takes the view that preparations for the fourth meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Foreign Minis- 12. ters and the Heads of State or Government represent a good opportunity for strengthening the Barcelona Process, revitalising, in particular, the negotiation of partnership agreements with Algeria, Syria and Leba- non and concluding such agreements with Egypt; 13. Welcomes the Commission’s activities to maintain the momentum behind a WTO-led process on further trade liberalisation as part of an intensive dialogue with developing countries on ways of improving their position in the trading system and on the treatment of environmental and social issues; recalls the EU’s declared objective of promoting sustainable development and calls on the Commission to present detailed proposals on how this dialogue should be pursued; 29. 12. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 377/325 Thursday 16 March 2000 Calls on the Commission to promote and safeguard the values of cultural diversity within the 14. framework of the WTO negotiations; Demands that the Commission submit to Parliament, for its assent, any agreement on WTO acces- 15. sion reached with important trading partners; Enlargement 16. Welcomes the intention of the Commission to present a communication strategy so as to ensure a broad understanding of enlargement both within the Member States and the applicant countries and hopes that this will lead to greater involvement of all sectors of society in the process of enlargement and integration; Demands to be informed regularly by the Commission of progress in negotiations for the accession 17. of the twelve countries which are applicants for membership of the European Union; 18. Calls on the Commission to develop a strategy which seeks to engender stability and development in countries which adjoin the enlarged European Union; calls, especially, for cooperation with countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus and those of the Caucasus to be stepped up; 19. Supports the view that pre-accession funds should be used in a more decentralised way, thereby enabling local and regional authorities to play a more active role in the planning and implementation of projects; Economic and Social Cohesion 20. Insists on improved monitoring and coordination of economic and monetary policies; regrets, in this connection, that no new initiative has been proposed in the economic and financial sector; reiterates ear- lier calls for greater involvement of Parliament in this process in order to compensate for the democratic deficit in this crucial area of policy; 21. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to restoring full employment and securing social cohe- sion; emphasises that the Union and the Member States must intensify their work on modernising social protection and promoting social inclusion as matters of common concern; Urges a revision of the Directive on collective redundancies, which needs to be strengthened and 22. instrumented by possible sanctions against companies infringing the Directive; 23. Welcomes the announcement of a new Social Action Programme and takes the view that it will require additional legislative proposals to develop it; 24. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment regarding regional policy in the implementation of the in the development of the regions by establishing Community Initiatives Interreg III and Urban II, the important lists of regions eligible for Objective 2 status as well as in setting out a new policy for the outermost regions and islands of the European Union; Calls on the Commission to take all the measures required to ensure that the principle of addition- 25. ality is fully respected in the current programming and implementation process under the Structural Funds; 26. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to publish a Fifth action programme on gender equality; expects the Commission, nevertheless, to adopt benchmarking for gender equality in all areas of policy, implement gender mainstreaming in internal reforms and in the enlargement process and take initiatives on reconciling professional and family life for women and men; Calls on the Commission to take a legislative initiative in order to implement the Treaty provisions 27. relating to services of general economic interest; C 377/326 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 29. 12. 2000 Thursday 16 March 2000 Single market, information society and tax Considers that greater harmonisation of civil law has become essential in the internal market and 28. calls on the Commission to draw up a study in this area; Calls on the Commission to make full use of the provisions of Article 153 of the EC Treaty relating 29. to the protection of consumer rights and to present the requisite proposals; 30. Asks the Commission, in its forthcoming ‘Legislative package on public procurement’ and its inter- pretative communication on public procurement and the environment, to allow for effective social as well as environmental conditionality for procurement by public authorities of different political levels, as long as such conditions are not intended to distort competition; 31. Demands the rapid introduction of measures to counter piracy and counterfeiting in the internal market with a view to encouraging innovation, especially in the small businesses sector, and reminds the Commission that a European patent which is cheap and rapidly effective is still a matter of the utmost urgency; Supports the Commission’s approach calling for greater cooperation in the management of radio 32. frequencies but opposes any reallocation of powers; Insists that the Commission should take full account of Parliament’s recommendations in its new 33. proposal on postal services; Supports the creation of a European Research Area and calls on the Commission to take the mea- 34. sures required for the development of European scientific potential, 35. Insists on the implementation of the e-Europe initiative specifically by elaborating an integrated legal framework for the development of electronic commerce which guarantees an equitable balance between the interests of the industries concerned and those of consumers; 36. Welcomes the announcement of a communication on a strategy seeking to improve the operation of VAT in the internal market; insists that work on the simplification of the value added tax system and its straightforward application to electronic commerce should be speeded up; 37. Invites the Commission to envisage new legislative initiatives with a view to combating harmful tax competition between Member States; awaits with great interest the Commission’s communications on tax strategy, the review of the code of conduct for business taxation and the communication on making eco- nomic policy supportive of environmental sustainability; calls on the Commission in this context to pro- pose specific measures in favour of outermost regions pursuant to Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty; Agriculture and fisheries Calls on the Commission to involve and inform Parliament on all aspects of negotiations on agri- 38. culture within the World Trade Organisation and on the negotiations concerning agriculture with the CEECs in the context of enlargement; Asks the Commission to present without delay proposals aimed at simplifying Community legisla- 39. tion and implementation provisions within the CAP, in order to guarantee transparency and efficiency; 40. Insists that financial obligations entered into by the European Union under the CAP must be met in full; asks for solutions to be found to specific sectoral problems arising from the application of the CAP; urges the Commission to reconsider its intention of reducing expenditure under heading 1 by € 300 mil- lion; Reminds the Commission of the importance of the countryside programmes and calls for imple- 41. mentation of the rural development measures as soon as possible; 29. 12. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 377/327 Thursday 16 March 2000 42. Welcomes the intention of the Commission to integrate environmental considerations more firmly into the CAP and calls upon the Commission to present specific legislative proposals to achieve this aim in the common agriculture and fisheries policies, including clear provisions for the precautionary principle; 43. Calls on the Commission, in pursuit of its objective of improving the competitiveness and sustain- ability of the common fisheries policy in the context of increasing globalisation of economic activities, to pay particular attention to preserving direct and indirect employment and to improving working con- ditions in that sector; Asks the Commission to continue its efforts so that a fisheries agreement with Morocco may be 44. signed as soon as possible; Environment 45. Welcomes the Commission’s continued commitment to integrating environmental considerations in other sectors and Community policies, to be followed up by specific proposals; calls on the Commission to be particularly vigilant with regard to Structural Fund projects, enlargement and trade; 46. Calls on the Commission to come forward with a proposal for a Sixth Environmental Action Pro- gramme with quantified targets and timetables, as already requested by Parliament during the discussions on the Fifth Environmental Action Programme; 47. Asks the Commission to include in its programme the following proposals: # Proposals for establishing maximum limits in respect of the flexibility mechanism provided for in the Kyoto Protocol (including the trading of contamination licences), # Proposal for a directive on soil protection, # Proposals for transferring the responsibility for supervising common legal standards (inspections) to the European Environment Agency, # Proposal for the amendment of Directive 98/70/EC on fuel quality, with a view to reducing sulphur content to 10 ppm per litre, # Proposal for a directive on the prevention and repair of damage to the environment (replacing the proposed White Paper on civil liability in environmental protection matters), # Proposal for a Framework Directive on noise policies, # Proposal for a Directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment, # Speeding up of the process for evaluating and modifying the common list of substances annexed to Directive 91/414/EEC on pesticides, # Detailed review of Directive 92/43/EEC (Fauna, Flora and Habitat) on the conservation of wild flora and fauna, in the light of its application in the Member States; Food safety, public health and consumer confidence 48. Welcomes the many ambitious and far-reaching programmes set out in the areas of food safety, public health and consumer confidence but emphasises the need for quality over quantity and reminds the Commission that problems still remain in implementing and monitoring existing legislation; Supports the full application of the precautionary principle in all matters of food safety and calls, 49. in this context, for the continuation of the existing moratorium on new GMO releases; C 377/328 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 29. 12. 2000 Thursday 16 March 2000 Transport and Energy 50. Supports the Commission in its ambitious programme regarding transport policy, especially the substantial improvement of air traffic control in European skies and the improvement of transport safety, especially in the maritime sector and on roads; 51. Notwithstanding the long awaited announcement of a proposal for a directive on renewables, calls on the Commission for clearer signs of a shift in its energy policy towards the promotion of renewable energies, including market penetration and easier network access, in view of the contribution of renewable energy to competitiveness, environmental protection and security of supplies; An area of freedom, security and justice 52. Calls on the Commission to improve the planning of European Justice and Home Affairs policies by means of close cooperation with Parliament at a very early stage (e. g. scoreboard, joint action plans and programmes, joint Green or White Papers), in order to avoid hasty decision-making as well as loss of credibility of the EU institutions in this field, and to ensure that, in future, the decision-making process allows for thorough scrutiny of policies and their impact; Education and culture Emphasises that the Commission’s programme of work does not make any explicit reference to the 53. creation of a European educational and cultural area; 54. Regrets that, alongside the implementation of framework programmes for education, culture, young people and the audiovisual sector and the information and sports policies, not many measures and actions are envisaged to strengthen these policies, although they are essential for the establishment of European citizenship; Internal reform 55. Welcomes, in principle, the declared intention of the Commission to concentrate its resources in future on a range of core tasks; believes, however, that such a reform move must meet several conditions: (i) it must contribute towards enhancing the transparency of political responsibilities at European level relative to the national, regional or local levels of decision-making and policy implementation, espe- cially for the general public, (ii) it should not be misused as an excuse for political inactivity in certain areas nor as a pretext for avoiding difficult policy issues, (iii) it needs to be developed in close consultation with Parliament, including close dialogue between indi- vidual Commissioners in their areas of responsibility and the appropriate parliamentary committees in the run-up to the reform; 56. Insists that a genuine and long-lasting reform of the Commission, as called for by Parliament, must be established as soon as possible in order to restore public confidence in the European institutions; calls on the Commission to take full account of the views of the European Parliament before any proposals are put forward to change the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities and recalls that it is Parliament which has the final say on any new staff resources which might be requested; 57. Is of the opinion that the draft regulation concerning public access to documents of the institutions is too restrictive; calls for more detailed provisions on transparency in the spirit of the Amsterdam Treaty; * * * 29. 12. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 377/329 Thursday 16 March 2000 58. Calls on the Commission to submit the proposals referred to above and to inform Parliament of the progress of the legislative programme and of any changes or delays, in order to improve both the trans- parency of the decision-making process and interinstitutional cooperation; Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the parliaments of 59. the Member States, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee. 4. EU Charter of Fundamental Rights A5-0064/2000 European Parliament resolution on the drafting of a European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights (C5-0058/1999 + 1999/2064(COS)) The European Parliament, # having regard to the decision of the European Council on the drafting of a European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights (C5-0058/1999), # having regard to its position as representative of the peoples of the European Union, # considering that the Union should strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of its Member States through the introduction of a citizenship of the Union (Article 2 of the EU Treaty), # having regard to the fact that the Union must respect fundamental rights ‘as they result from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, as general principles of Community law’ (Article 6 of the EU Treaty), # having regard to the Preamble of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 217 A (III) on 10 December 1948 in Paris, # having regard to its numerous initiatives in the matter of fundamental and citizens’ rights, in particular to its resolution of 12 April 1989 on the Declaration of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (1), # having regard to its initiatives in the matter of a constitution for the European Union, in particular its resolution of 12 December 1990 on the constitutional basis of European Union (2) and its resolution of 10 February 1994 on the Constitution of the European Union (3), # having regard to the conclusions of the Cologne European Council and the conclusions of the Tam- pere European Council, # having regard to its resolution of 16 September 1999 on the drawing up of a Charter of Fundamental Rights (4), # having regard to its resolution of 27 October 1999 on the European Council meeting in Tampere (5), # having regard to the outstanding importance of the forthcoming enlargement of the Union and the Intergovernmental Conference, # having regard to the setting-up on 17 December 1999 in Brussels of the Convention to draft a Euro- pean Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, # having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure, (1) OJ C 120, 16. 5. 1989, p. 51. (2) OJ C 19, 28. 1. 1991, p. 65. (3) OJ C 61, 28. 2. 1994, p. 155. (4) OJ C 54, 25. 2. 2000, p. 93. (5) Texts adopted at that Sitting, point 15