Libya

EUROPEAN retaliation for US sanctions on foreigners dealing with Cuba is now moving from the theoretical to the practical as proposed counter-sanctions go to EU governments for approval.

FRANCE has announced it will appeal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against last week’s decision by MEPs to hold just 11 plenary sessions in Strasbourg next year. It claims that the move violates a 1992 agreement between EU leaders specifying that a dozen sessions should be held in the Alsatian capital each year. The French government is already involved in a separate legal case before the ECJ which it launched last year after MEPs similarly cancelled one of the 1996 Strasbourg sessions.

LIBERALISATION of the EU’s natural gas markets should come a lot more quickly than it did for electricity.

Employment and growthALL heads of government stressed their commitment to continuing the fight against unemployment. Although many welcomed Commission President Jacques Santer’s ‘confidence pact’, several stressed that responsibility for job creation remained with member states and the social partners. The summit stressed that sustained non-inflationary growth was the key to reducing unemployment, and underlined that socially balanced efforts to reduce budget deficits – through reduced expenditure rather than increased spending – could both create jobs and prepare the way for economic and monetary union at the start of 1999. Member states committed themselves to restructuring expenditure and asked the social partners to adopt a wages policy favourable to employment.

IT will doubtless be a sunnyday in Washington when US President Bill Clinton steps out on to the White House lawn with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and European Commission President Jacques Santer next week.

EU foreign ministers reiterated their call for an immediatecease-fire between Israel andthe Lebanon-based Hezbollah, calling on both sides to stop their bombing and warning that further aggression would seriously threaten the Middle East peace process.

NO amount of harsh words from the UK can shake the European Commission’s belief that its total ban on British beef exports is completely justified.

“This is an intergovernmental conference and you can’t have an intergovernmental conference if organisations or institutions that are not governments are taking part.”British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind defending Anglo-French opposition to allowing the European Parliament to participate in the IGC.

WITH a month to go before a major reunion designed to unite the Mediterranean, the European Union is trying to cement its policy on North Africa and the Middle East.

TRANSATLANTIC ties may be strong, but showed signs of strain when EU foreign ministers debated the idea of launching a study of whether a free-trade zone between the EU and the US would be beneficial to Europe. While the ministers said that they agreed the relationship with the US was the most important to the EU, many opposed a study. France insisted that transatlantic talks should focus on political issues to force Washington to increase its funding for the UN and developing countries. French Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette also said talks should aim at curbing the instability of the US dollar, which, he said hurts Europe. Others, such as Spain, opposed the notion of free trade which might endanger their sales of farm goods. Free traders Germany, Denmark, the UK and the Netherlands avidly supported the idea of a study. Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan was careful to say a study would not commit the EU to launching the trade zone.