Price increase: the Commission’s proposal “The price increase of fuels is drastically reducing citizens’ purchasing power, with devastating consequences upon low-income families”. The president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, acknowledging the emergency situation triggered by oil product prices, along with similar increase in foods, on June 11 submitted a series of concrete proposals to be implemented at EU level, concerning the short, medium and long term. “It is my belief- Barroso explained- that Community-based response possibly linked to targeted social policies implemented in the single Member States, will enable us to successfully address this challenge”. The head of the Executive intends to bring these proposals, under the form of a “Communication” by the Commission, to the EU Head of Government and State Council of June 19-20. Options include: “Greater promotion of energy efficiency within enterprises and at family level”, initiatives on the transparency of oil stocks, “the organization of a world summit on oil markets”. The Commission also accepted the principle according to which “the State must take short-term initiatives to support the poorest population brackets”, however avoiding distortions affecting the market and national budget policies”. Citizens’ agora on climate changes On June 12 and 13 the EU Parliament hosted in its Brussels premises the second “Citizen Agora”. “After the edition inaugurated last year on the future of Europe – the organizers declared – the Europarliament will hold a two-day Agora on climate changes. Five-hundred society representatives will meet MEPs, Community decision-makers and international experts to illustrate their recommendations”. The initiative is to be inscribed in a long political process regarding this “global challenge”. The Assembly recently issued a report of the short-standing commission on climate changes, while on May 26 the Energy Globe Awards took place. The Agora had been envisaged within the framework of the Parliament’s legislative work on the “climate package” and will serve for the preparation of Poznan (end 2008) and Copenhagen (2009) energy summits. The Agora’s conclusions will be submitted to European and National institutions. Participants include: Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Economic Trends Foundation and Jacqueline McGlade, director of the European Environment agency. Echa’s activity in Helsinky “Replacing forty different legislations on chemical substances with a single regulation at European level”. This is one of the declared commitments of the European Chemicals Agency (Echa), which recently inaugurated its seat in Helsinky. The agency directed by Geert Dancet, “will be concerned with the implementation of the regulatory framework (Reach) aimed at ensuring the responsible and non-harmful use of chemical substances, to the benefit of consumers and of the environment. Echa will then “fill out a detailed report with the characteristics of all the chemical substances produced or imported in Europe”, thus “informing on precious and previously inaccessible information”. Officially established in June 2007, the agency devoted the first year to the organization procedures and will now pass to its operative stage. Press office devoted to Anna Politkovskaja”Anna was a heroine”: Lorenzo Consoli ApCom journalist in Brussels and President of the International Press Association (Ipa/Api), recalls the memory of his colleague Anna Politkovskaja, to whom the EU Parliament devoted the press room in Brussels. The ceremony, held on June 4, was attended by the President of the Assembly, Hans-Gert Poettering, by a number of Euro-deputies and by dozens of media operators accredited at Community institutions. Editor of Novaja Gazeta, renown for her inquiries on the Chechnya conflict and as human rights upholder in Russia, Ms. Politkovskaja was killed on October 7 2006. “We must always remember – Consoli explained – that she risked her life a number of times in order to describe the horrors of the war, for having challenged the official truth and the silence plot of the neo-authoritarian Russian regime”. Consoli added: “Anna’s testament is crucial for us. It enables us to recall the very essence of journalism, that is, the constant quest for truth and the testimony of truth. She was seeking not an absolute truth, rather, the factual truths as we know them”. For the EU Parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering, the decision to dedicate the press office to the Russian journalist is “a tribute to all those journalist who risk their lives to defend the freedom of speech”.
