Buzek in Tripoli: “Building a new Libya”The guarantees for a free Libya will arrive mostly from the Libyan people. Last week, the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, paid an official visit to the North-African country, where he met politicians, citizens, civil society and non-governmental organizations representatives, women organisations and media officers. “You have won the war. Now you have to win the peace”, Buzek said. “I wish that all Libyans – men and women – reap the harvest of their fight for human dignity and freedom. The new Libya must be a Libya of peace and justice, of democracy and law”. The President of the EU Assembly met Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the chair of the transitional council, members of civil society and he also talked to the public in Martyrs’ Square. “New challenges lie ahead for Libya”, Buzek said -: “democracy and law, human rights, minorities”. The Polish politicians said the EU is ready to help Libya, but only when Libya itself will seek this support. He said he would like to welcome soon Libyan representatives to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean.The EU Parliament on Bulgarian and Romanian workersWorkers from Eastern Europe “do not generate unemployment and do not put pressure on the social welfare systems”. On the contrary, they generate GDP growth. For this reason, MEPs urge all Member States to welcome Bulgarian and Romanian citizens by the end of 2011. The position of the EP is contained in a resolution approved during the recent plenary meeting in Strasbourg. Rumenian MEP Traian Ungureanu, who drafted the resolution, explained that “there has been no negative impact in those Member States that opened labour markets” to citizens from countries that gained EU membership status in 2004 and 2007. The EP thus calls upon those countries that still impose restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian citizens or that oppose their entry (notably The Netherlands and Finland), to remove them by the end of 2011 “before the final deadline of 2013 laid down in the EU accession treaty”. In fact, such restrictions “can have a detrimental impact on fundamental values and rights enshrined in the EU treaties, such as free movement, non-discrimination, solidarity and equal rights”. The resolution, as reported in the EU Parliament release, deplores “recent legislative proposals in some Member States to reimpose labour market access restrictions on citizens from some other Member States” and call on the Commission to investigate whether such policies infringe EU law. MEPs expressed concern about EU Member States’ poor transposition into national law and enforcement of EU legislation on the free movement of workers; and especially a Directive of 2004 “on the right of citizens and their family members to move and reside freely in the EU”. The (non-legislative) resolution adopted by the EP underlines that “current procedures for recognising professional qualifications are another big obstacle to workers’ mobility”. Community institutions plan to tackle the issue soon.Commission: European culture on the Internet”Europe has probably the world’s greatest cultural heritage. It cannot afford to miss the opportunities offered” by the Internet. “Digitisation brings culture into people’s homes and is a valuable resource for education, tourism games, animation and the whole creative industry”. Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the EU Commission, presented a Recommendation whereby the European Union asks Member States “to step up their efforts, pool their resources and involve the private sector in digitising cultural material”. Kroes said: “Investing in digitisation will create new companies and generate new jobs”. Digitization is considered “essential to make European cultural heritage more widely available” and “to boost growth in Europe’s creative industries”. Digitized material should be made available through Europeana, Europe’s digital library, archive and museum (see www.europeana.eu), which started out with 2 million items when it was launched in 2008, and currently holds more than 19 million objects, (texts, photos, videos, historic documents and artistic material…). The Recommendation builds on the conclusions of the Comité des Sages (high level reflection group) on bringing Europe’s cultural heritage online.
