On various fronts” “

Last week the European Commission approved the strategic lines for the next five years and the programme for 2005, outlined during the parliamentary session in Brussels. The EU leaders then presided over the commemoration at Auschwitz of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp. There were also European interventions at Davos, at the World Economic Forum, and at the Social Forum in Porto Alegre, where emphasis was placed on the need to take effective action to address hunger, poverty, disease and ignorance in the world. A UNION CLOSER TO CITIZENS. Prosperity, solidarity and security: these are the EU priorities for the next few years. Described to the European Parliament by the President of the Commission JOSÉ MANUEL DURAO BARROSO, they form the programme of work from 2005 on. The head of the Executive announced a wide-ranging programme, which will need to be coordinated with the other two institutions of the Union: Council and Parliament. The point of departure for the Barroso strategy is the response “to the expectations of European citizens”: to satisfy them, the EU “intends to work to revive the economy, creating new jobs and greater prosperity”. To this end, the team of Commissioners is working on the Lisbon Agenda, which will be one of the key points of the European Council at the end of March. Barroso insists on the need to “reconnect with citizens” through “the entry into force of the Constitution, the simplification of European legislation, and wider civic participation in the integration project”. The main points of the programme include “the completion of the package of measures on financial prospects and the implementation of The Hague Programme to promote the space of liberty, security and justice”. SPOTLIGHT ON THE MIDDLE EAST SITUATION. For its part the Parliament adopted a Resolution on the situation in the Middle East last week. It appeals for “an end to violence and the revival of negotiations to reach a peace agreement without prior conditions, based on the existence of two sovereign democratic states living peacefully side by side, within secure and recognized frontiers”. The document emphasises the positive experience of the recent parliamentary elections that led Abu Mazen to be elected President of the Palestinian Authority. It condemns “all terrorist attacks and acts of violence perpetrated by both sides”. The European Parliament reaffirms its opposition to any show of force that “harms the peace process or the conditions of the civil population”. A strong appeal is made to the Palestinian Authority “to promote the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary”. The Resolution also calls on the Israeli government “to abstain from reprisals, implement the pullback from Gaza, halt the expansion of settlements and interrupt the construction of the wall”. The way ahead indicated by the European Parliament is that of the resumption of negotiations. During the same session, the Parliament approved a document that condemns the Holocaust and every form of historic revisionism, indicating “the way of memory” to avoid the recurrence of wars and tragedies like that of the Shoah. COUNCIL OF EUROPE: DIALOGUE BETWEEN CULTURES AND RELIGIONS. For its part the Council of Europe commemorated the Holocaust with a ceremony in Strasbourg, where the meeting of the Council’s parliamentary assembly was held (24-28 January). Among the guests who arrived in Strasbourg for the occasion was the newly installed President of Ukraine, VICTOR YUSHENKO, who reaffirmed his determination to bring his country into the heart of Europe, and expressed his hope in Ukraine’s “future membership of the EU”. The Assembly of the Council of Europe also elected its new President: the choice fell on RENÉ VAN DER LINDEN, 61 years old, married with three children, member of the Democratic Christian Party in the Netherlands. His term of office is only for one year, but is twice renewable. The Dutchman thus succeeds the Austrian socialist Peter Schieder. In his inaugural address, Van der Linden declared that his priorities will be “the reinforcement of cooperation with other international organizations, including the EU and the UNO, the need to heighten the importance of the Assembly in the eyes of citizens, and the success of the third Summit of heads of state and of government”, due to be held in Warsaw on 16-17 May. Van der Linden also warned of the dangers “of possible new splits in Europe” and all forms of “racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism and intolerance”. For these reasons, “the resources of the Council of Europe, such as its promotion of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, ought – he said – to be used to even better effect”.