Waiting for Obama

Barack Obama’s election at the White House “is an opportunity to renew relations between the European Union and the United States”, declared MEPs in a message to the United States on the eve of the EU-USA summit of April 5. Obama will be in Europe from April 2 to attend the G20 reunion in London. On April 3-4 he will be in Strasbourg for a NATO summit that celebrates its 60th anniversary. Strategic partnership. The report adopted with large majority-vote during the EP plenary session of March 23-26, drawn up by Spanish representative Francisco José Millàn Mon, voices the need for “systematic” coordination between Europe and the United States in the area of foreign policy and security, stepping up cooperation on human rights, the fight against terrorism, nuclear disarm and regional crises. The document acknowledges the need for a new transatlantic partnership to strengthen ties between the EU and America. Given the financial and economic crisis that originated in the United States, MEPs called for a revival of financial markets through the adoption of new regulations (the issue was object of parliamentary debate). The Twenty-Seven Assembly equally invited Washington to ratify the statute of the International Criminal Court and abolish death penalty. Automobile sector. During the session, the crisis in the economy was brought up on various occasions and was addressed to the presence of the Council, the Commission, and of English Premier Gordon Brown. MEPs adopted a resolution centred on the car industry: one of the basic sectors of the Continent’s productive and business system, “that contributes to the employment, innovation and competitiveness of the entire economic apparatus. Directly or indirectly, “the automotive industry provides employment to 12 million people”, representing 6% of all employment. Furthermore, “it is the major private investor in the area of research and development”. However, this sector has been hit particularly hard by the current economic crisis leading “to a drastic drop in car demand”. For this purpose the Parliament requested the development of “a European Action Framework for measures in support of this area without competition distortion”. The resolution, endorsed by the Popular, Socialist, Liberal-democrats and Europe of the Nations groups, calls for simplification and greater financial support to this area, especially through the European Investments Bank and by resorting to scrapping programs.Turn-up for the book. Last week’s session was marked by a number of “turn-ups for the book” and by events that gained primary attention. It would be sufficient to recall the presence in the assembly hall on March 25 of Czech Mirek Topolanek, President-in-Office of the European Council, who was voted out the previous day by Prague’s Parliament. This represents a weaker position in EU’s leadership, at a moment marked by important international EU-27 gatherings and of strategic decisions that need to be made in response to the economic recession, the climate changes and the energetic question. Not to mention the impasse characterizing the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Controversies were caused by the possibility that the first session of the next EU Parliament, to be elected in June, will be presided over by the French representative of xenophobic French right Jean-Marie Le Pen. After Le-Pen’s umpteenth declarations in relation to Holocaust-denial, the largest political groups in Strasbourg agreed upon a maneveur in the procedures to ensure that if re-elected, Le Pen would not be in the position of occupying the presidential post in his capacities as oldest MEP. Cohesion policy. Among the other issues addressed by the hemicycle, MEPs discussed cohesion policies: an issue that is at the centre of an international conference organized in Prague in those same days. According to the report by Constanze Krehl (Germany), adopted with almost unanimous vote, there are a number of obstacles preventing the full implementation of such policies aimed at “promoting EU’s social, economic and territorial cohesion along with the development of its 268 regions”, through “deficit reduction, development disparities and the improvement of citizens’ life”. Among these obstacles, the Euro-assembly indicates excessive bureaucracy, frequent modifications of membership criteria and of the documentation requested to Member States, the lack of transparency in decision-making processes, and payment delays. These obstacles lie within EU’s very fabric thus “excluding or demotivating the potential recipients of the funds”. The document envisages a number of lines of action, provision, good practices, and suggestions aimed at overcoming these problems.