An agenda for the future

Two intensive days for the European Parliament, meeting in plenary assembly to approve the 7th Framework Programme for Research, discuss the future of integration and give the go ahead to some dossiers of social interest. The session was held in Brussels on 29-30 November, with one eye turned on the Commission, which in the meantime has decided on the partial suspension of membership negotiations with Turkey, and the other on Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Anatolian country. CONSTITUTION AND “SUBTERRANEAN CHALLENGES”. The debate on the process of integration was opened with an intervention by Irish Premier BERTIE AHERN . “I hope that the Berlin Declaration”, which will be approved by the heads of state and of government of the EU at the summit on 25 March 2007, “will be succinct and eloquent in order to revive the debate on the Constitutional Treaty”. Ahern, speaking in Gaelic (a language introduced for the first time among the official languages of the EU, in addition to the other 20), declared that “there are various subterranean challenges we must tackle to continue all that has been done in these last fifty years in the life of the Community”. Of these challenges, the Irish premier listed “competitiveness, which requires investments, research and the construction of a market without barriers”; “the renewal of the European social model”; the protection of the environment; the availability of a sufficient budget to realise all common policies; and “the pursuit of the interests of citizens, who await concrete results from this Europe”. RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA, FORTHCOMING ENLARGEMENTS. Ahern ended his speech by declaring: “The Constitutional Treaty can be modified, without damaging its essential structure”. During the debate, at times combative, various MEPs said they agreed on the attempt to smooth the way for the entry into force of the Constitution, while several others contested the little progress made since the failed referenda in France and Holland by national political leaders and by the European Council, leaving the impression that there is a lack of political will to approve the Constitution. After this debate, the EP focused on an analysis of the EU-Russia summit on 24 November and on the imminent accession of Romania and Bulgaria. In the documents it approved, the EP considers the entry of the two countries into the “common home” positive, but at the same time underlines the reforms and progress needed to bring Bucharest and Sofia into line with Community standards. EUROPEAN RESEARCH AND ETHICAL QUESTIONS. The Assembly then voted in favour of the Framework Programme that will allocate 54 billion euros to research over the period 2007-2013. Many sectors are involved, from the economy to the new technologies, from the environment to health. The approval of the text means that the funding of experiments on embryonal stem cells, albeit in conformity with national legislations, is now possible. The ethical objections raised on the question and gathered in two amendments did however receive the support of numerous deputies; this wide support urges that a final decision now be reached by the Council of Ministers. In fact, as the Italian MEP CARLO CASINI explains, “the Parliament had a shock by voting in favour of the amendment that asks that funding be refused for research on embryonal stem cells deriving from embryos destroyed subsequent to the date of approval of the Framework programme itself. In the other similar vote the Parliament was split exactly into two. CONFLICTING SIGNALS FROM THE PARLIAMENT. During the session the report presented by the British MEP ELIZABETH LYNNE was given the green light. It “invites the Commission to present a specific draft directive on disability” and “promote a European Charter for the quality of assistance to disabled persons”. “The principle of non-discrimination in access to goods and services – says the report – must be a right guaranteed to every European citizen”. In addition, for World Aids Day (1st December), the EP has adopted a Resolution that urges “greater funds for programmes of prevention”. It then asks for “information and assistance on responsible sexual conduct and on the effective prevention of sexually transmitted diseases to be integrated in all services relating to reproductive and sexual health”. The EP requests more funds for programmes of prevention and to assist child victims of the disease or orphaned due to the Aids (15 million throughout the world). In particular it asks the Commission to raise to 1 billion euros its own contribution to the World Fund for the fight against HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, the Parliament emphasises “the need for a global increase of funds by donors in the years ahead for all birth-control supplies, including condoms, for the prevention of the contagion”.