EU in brief" "
The European Parliament met in plenary session in Strasbourg from 12 to 15 May. The week was eventful. The parliamentary assembly officially welcomed for the first time 159 of the 162 observer deputies from the ten countries that recently signed their membership Treaties: they will participate in all the work of the commissions and in the main debating chamber with the right to take the floor but not to vote. The President of the European Parliament Pat Cox welcomed the ten delegations (the Polish one being the largest with 54 observers, the Maltese the smallest with 5), declaring that the new composition of the assembly and the largely positive results of the membership referendums are a sign of the “desire for Europe” and a step towards “the Europe of citizens”. The plenary session in the course of which Polish President Aleksander Kwaniewski gave a solemn address debated at length the post-war phase in Iraq and especially the European role in the administration of humanitarian aid. The EU, which has already allocated 250 million euros, intends to cooperate closely with the UNO in the civil and democratic reconstruction of Iraq, and give priority to urgently needed humanitarian relief. The many provisions approved by the EP include: the report on environmental responsibility for those who pollute, the approval of the programme on “intelligent energy for Europe” and three related reports on European cooperative society, on the involvement of workers in business policy and on the social responsibility of firms.
