EPP-ED Report
Issue 4 / April 2008

Food Crisis

By Ioannis Zografos

The problem of rising food prices has spread around the world, jeopardising political stability in many countries. This issue was the heart of the debate in the European Parliament. The question is how best Europe can deal with the issue and in particular, how it can help developing countries to stave off potential famine.

Since the beginning of 2008, wheat prices have gone up by 300%, corn 200%, and at the same time, demand has risen. Many developing countries and non-EU European countries have imposed restrictions on food exports.

It is widely accepted that the world is facing a potentially serious food supply shortage and that the era of cheap food is well and truly over. In addition, if the situation continues, urgent food aid to developing countries just won't be enough to solve the problem.

Speaking in the plenary, Group Chairman Joseph Daul (F) said that the EPP-ED Group is extremely concerned by this development and emphasised that the agricultural sector must undergo more in-depth reforms to resolve the crisis in a sustainable manner.

"The emergency measures will only be a temporary solution to the problem. Agriculture, the world over, must be subject to in-depth, structural reforms. We have to promote agricultural development, also in emerging economies, because the main challenge is that of food self-sufficiency for poor countries."

According to the Chairman of the most influential group in the European Parliament, the CAP health check is the perfect opportunity to launch the debate on agriculture and food policy in Europe, even if solutions have to be found worldwide:

"The solution to the food problem can only be seen as a global responsibility; Europe must find solutions in close cooperation with international bodies such as the World Bank, the IMF and, of course, the WTO. We must also find a way to limit the adverse effects of financial speculation. Some people are starving while certain countries boast large reserves, although still limiting exports. Global speculators are playing with people's lives - we must do everything in our power to break these trends and make the market more transparent".

Galileo Satellite Radio Navigation System

By György Hölvényi

The Galileo satellite radio navigation system is an initiative launched by the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA), and is one of the most important aspects of the Lisbon Strategy. This system will be the first infrastructure in Europe that is commonly built and jointly owned, and will be compatible with the current GPS system.

The European Parliament has always maintained that it is a strategic project and should be managed as a political priority.

In her speech in the plenary, Etelka Barsi-Pataky (HU), Rapporteur of the Galileo Report, stressed: "A realistic time schedule is crucial in order to secure the commercial advantage of Galileo, to make it possible to avoid any further delay."

Galileo's deployment phase shall be fully publicly funded, while its exploitation phase could be funded privately. The deployment phase, which costs €3.4 billion, runs until 2013 and will be entirely funded by the EU. During the exploitation phase, the programme is promoting a balanced participation of SMEs across the 27 Member States.

"The programme shall be based on the principal of a strict division of responsibilities. The European Commission acts as 'Programme Manager' and will be helped by the Committee on the GNSS Programme (which includes Galileo and EGNOS). The ESA is the 'prime contractor', and the GSA will manage the security accreditation and the operation of the Galileo security centre."

Due to the newly-invented Galileo Inter-institutional Panel, the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament will closely follow the progress of the implementation of the programme and the effectiveness of the governance arrangements.

Galileo is based on a constellation of 30 satellites and a group of ground stations providing information concerning the positioning of users in many sectors. GIOVE-A, the first European navigation satellite, was launched in 2005. The second satellite, GIOVE-B, has a similar mission but has greatly improved signal generation hardware. This satellite is scheduled to be launched on 27 April.

Illegal Immigration

By David Stellini

During a debate in the European Parliament on illegal immigration and the Frontex Agency, Simon Busuttil (MT), EPP-ED Group Spokesman on Frontex, called on EU countries to avoid a repetition of incidents that took place last year where immigrants caught in difficulty in Libya's search and rescue maritime region were left clinging to a tuna-pen, with Libya doing nothing and EU countries pointing at each other over who should take the immigrants. The debate discussed the level of preparedness of EU countries in the face of another immigration season.

On Frontex, Busuttil stated that this will be a test year for the agency and that the European Parliament will be closely observing its work and expects it to be more effective. Even more so, after its budget has been doubled and it has been given more and better means to operate, including the setting-up of a Rapid Border Intervention Team to deal with emergency situations.

"If Frontex wants our support it must demonstrate that it truly deserves it", Busuttil said. However, he acknowledged that Frontex was only part of the solution and that the solution had to include a serious discussion on burden-sharing. He criticised EU governments for avoiding this discussion. "Stop the hypocrisy of being scandalised at the loss of lives in the Mediterranean and then leaving Southern EU countries to carry the burden on their own", he said.

In the Mediterranean Sea, the need for burden-sharing could not be starker since serious incidents have taken place in international waters which did not fall under the responsibility of EU countries.

"I ask the Commission and the Council: What will they do this year? There is no doubt that everyone has an obligation to save lives. But who will assume the responsibility for immigrants who are saved? Is there one single country that should carry this on its own or is this a burden that should be shared by all?", Busuttil asked.

The time has come for the Commission and EU governments to pluck up enough courage to answer these questions.

Reinforced European cooperation to tackle donor organ shortage

By Greet Gysen

The European Parliament has adopted a report entitled 'Organ donation and transplantation: policy actions at EU level' proposing a range of measures to tackle problems such as organ shortage, transplantation risks and organ trafficking.

In the EU-27, there is an overall shortage of organs and a long waiting list of ten thousand patients with a high mortality rate. To increase the number of available organs in a safe way, the report proposes an integral approach based on three pillars: reinforced cooperation between Member States, a Directive for the quality and safety of organ donation and transplantation, and measures to fight the trafficking of organs.

Frieda Brepoels MEP (B), Rapporteur for the EPP-ED Group, underlined the importance of exchanging best practices among Member States: "Worldwide, Spain has the highest number of donors: more than 35 per million citizens in 2007. A visit to Spain showed us that the organisation of the donation system is crucial to this success. The GIFT Project, currently running in Belgium, is based on the Spanish model and yields excellent results. In 2007, Belgium saw an increase of 6% in donors (from 27.3 to 29.1 donors per million citizens). Based on these successful examples, the European Parliament asks that hospitals dedicate enough staff to identify potential donors and generate enough public attention for the positive results of transplantations."

In addition, the Parliament stresses that the Directive for quality and safety which the Commission will shortly publish needs to be flexible: the availability of organs should not be hampered and red tape for Member States should not increase.

Finally, the European Parliament asks the Commission and Europol to better combat organ donation and transplant tourism. Organ donation must stay strictly non-commercial and voluntary.

Passenger Name Records

By Marzena Rogalska

In the framework of the debate in the European Parliament on the Commission statement on the ongoing negotiations on bilateral agreements between the USA and certain EU Member States with regard to visas and passenger name records, Urszula Gacek MEP (PL), on behalf of the EPP-ED Group, has welcomed the initiative of the Council and the Commission.

She expressed her strong conviction that this initiative will lead to setting clear and transparent guidelines for bilateral agreements on visa waiver between EU Member States and the US. At the beginning of this year, some impatient countries started their own negotiations without regard to EU Directives. Others, however, decided to wait for the framework to be agreed within the EU first, in the knowledge that their negotiating position vis-á-vis the United States would be strengthened. She has stressed that through this debate a clear signal has been sent to the United States that they cannot exert pressure on individual nations to break EU guidelines, especially in the sensitive areas such as revealing passenger information in greater detail than the EU allows.

She has appealed to the United States to give serious thought to the criteria which form the basis of granting visas to citizens from the Eastern part of the EU. She has underlined that making visa requirements for all citizens of Europe a thing of the past is also in the interests of the United States of America.

EPP-ED calls for freedom of all hostages in Colombia

By Pedro López de Pablo

The European Parliament has approved a Resolution asking the Heads of State and Government that will meet at the next Euro-Latin American Summit to call for the "immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in Colombia".

The Resolution, tabled by Co-Chairman of the Eurolat Parliamentary Assembly, José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra (ES), demands that the political leaders present at the Lima Summit next 16 and 17 May make this call to the "FARC or any other organisation holding hostages". The release should be by the unilateral decision of these organisations or failing that, under an emergency humanitarian exchange agreement, with priority given to those who are sick.

"We wanted to show our solidarity once again with all the hostages in Colombia, including, obviously, the former candidate for the Colombian Presidency, Ingrid Bethancourt", Salafranca said.

But the Lima Summit should also be the opportunity to move Euro-Latin American relations from words to facts. This is why the Resolution proposed a number of concrete measures to increase association with these countries, especially in the items that will come up at the Summit such as the fight against poverty, social exclusion and the protection of the environment, and the fight against climate change.

"Latin America is an area with 600 million people. That contributes up to 10% of the World's GDP. It also has 40% of the vegetable species of the planet and it is exceptionally rich in terms of human resources", explained Salafranca. This is reason enough for the EU not to consider Latin American countries only as a market but as a partner to build a real strategic and regional association, with a soul, based on the common values such as freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law - which seem to be strengthening with efforts, but not everywhere", he said.

The Resolution also expressed the need in Lima to push for the earliest conclusion of the negotiations of the inter-regional partnership agreements with Mercosur, the Andean Community and Central America. "This will be the only way for the European Parliament to approve these agreements in time before the end of its current term before the next European elections are held in June 2009", Salafranca concluded.

Parliament against International Accounting Standards for SMEs

By Knut Goelz

The European Parliament has clearly refused to establish International Accounting Standards (IFRS) which would also heavily affect Small and Medium-Sized-Enterprises (SMEs). "European SMEs do not need such complex standards and must therefore not be forced to use them", said EP Rapporteur Alexander Radwan (D). The plenary also followed Radwan's criticism on the organisational structure of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation (IASCF) and its attempt to impose such standards.

"It is important that the IFRS Organisation adapts to the necessary changes", continued Radwan, EPP-ED Spokesman on Economic Affairs. The proposal to establish a monitoring group to meet growing criticism by gathering high-ranking politicians to better control the Board's work is however deemed to be insufficient, as these representatives could only approve but not really influence decisions of the organisation.

The question whether SMEs should also be subject to new International Accounting Standards had been subject to long and controversial discussions as this would have meant that such companies were to draw a balance under much more complicated premises. At the same time, such extensive data is not necessary for small and medium-sized enterprises, which do not refinance themselves at capital markets.

In his report, the German MEP therefore suggests to develop specific standards for small and medium-sized companies if the need arises. However, at this point, the European Parliament and the Commission would be responsible but not the private IFRS Board in London.