The European Commission “is studying ways of contributing to the regeneration of the French suburbs devastated by ten days of guerrilla warfare” and marked by social degradation. Funds allocated to the Urban programme, created to support urban regeneration in European states for the period 2000-2006 and so far unused, could be used for the project, according to Commission sources. Franco Frattini, Commissioner for the sector of liberty, security and justice, said in this regard that the grave events in France in recent days “are a European problem to which we cannot respond with stop-gap measures. Faced by great challenges such as those of immigration, integration and terrorism, the member countries cannot act alone. That’s why Europe is needed”. Other urgent questions (Financial Perspectives, bird flu, Iran, right of asylum) were tackled at the meeting of the Council of General Affairs and External Relations in Brussels this week. With regard to the plurennial budget, the Council, meeting on 7 November, identified the areas on which “it is necessary to concentrate to reach an agreement during the summit on 15-16 December”. A statement issued by the British Presidency of the European Council identified those areas as “the structure of expenditure, the modernization of the budget with the forecast of the deadlines for its revision and the system of the EU’s own resources”. Next week, the European Parliament, meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, will debate the so-called Reach directive for the regulation of the chemicals sector and the annual report of the Auditing Court.
