THE HANDSTAND

AND JUST INCASE WE THINK EUROPE WILL TAKE SOME INTEREST IN US, HERE IS THE LATEST FROM PETER MANDELSON - that bright spark, who said on hearing of the No Votes from France and Holland re the European Constitution - " a golden opportunity to assert fresh political leadership"

Brussels seeks TV makeover
By Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent
The Times

ALFIE MOON, the EastEnders market trader, could soon be informing his
customers about the benefits of EU food safety legislation and Brussels
consumer protection directives.

It is all part of a European Commission plan to combat rising
Euroscepticism. The Commission, announcing a long-awaited "communications
action plan" yesterday, hopes to work with programme makers across the
continent to promote positive messages.

Borrowing a UN tactic, it also intends to approach Europhile celebrities,
such as the comedian Eddie Izzard, to act as ambassadors to sell the
benefits of Brussels law-making. The Commission wants to make programmes,
possibly quiz shows and docudramas, that sell the EU vision.

The strategy was devised with the help of Peter Mandelson, the European
Trade Commissioner and former new Labour spin-doctor. It involves hiring an
army of "communication specialists", running communications courses for its
staff, training journalists and inviting them on trips with Commissioners,
and setting up focus groups to shape the way policies are promoted.

There will also be a special rebuttal unit, aimed at the British media, to
try to kill off misleading stories before people start believing them.

There are 50 action points, the most ambitious of which is the abolition of
Euro-speak, so that the public can understand what Eurocrats are saying.

Mr Mandelson said that, after the two referendum defeats: "I sense that the
Commission today has a golden opportunity to assert this fresh political
leadership."

Software bill better off in bin, Pat Cox says

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe is better off without the software patent directive, industry lobbyist and former European Parliament president Pat Cox said in an interview with the EUobserver, after MEPs binned the law earlier this week.

The Irish politician led MEPs through enlargement under his 2002 to mid-2004 presidency and has acted as advisor to the European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) on the software bill since late last year.

"The rejection by parliament is an act of prudence - no directive is better than a bad directive", Mr Cox continued, adding that the law might have turned Europe into a net consumer of software instead of a net producer in time.

"This is the outcome I would have fought for, even if I had been an elected representative", he remarked.

Under the status quo, IT firms can patent software innovations under the individual rules of the 25 member states as well as the European Patents Office in Munich, which has no formal ties with the EU.

The European Commission originally proposed a directive harmonising rules on computer code copyright across the bloc, but socialist EP rapporteur Michel Rocard pushed to limit the bill to physical inventions only, with the final draft falling between two stools.

Mr Cox explained that the final draft contained enough "legal uncertainty" to damage intellectual property rights of both small and large software companies and could have led to the exodus of firms such as SAP which employs 6,500 people and invests €850 million a year on software research in the EU alone.

He added that public debate lapsed into stereotypes of small IT firms struggling against big business' attempts to lock them out of the sector, but that smaller players also rely on code copyright to make their software tradeable.

"Software is a new frontier in a very old debate", he noted. "Abraham Lincoln said that we should 'add the fuel of interest to the fire of genius' when writing to defend the US patent system".

Cox reinvents himself
EICTA is the first major client of Mr Cox's Washington DC-registered lobbying firm, European Integration Solutions (EIS).

The ex-EP president said he is "happily reinventing himself" from being a political "generalist" to an IT consultant but maintains a public profile via pro-bono publico work with NGOs such as Friends of Europe and The European Movement.

He did not remark on any potential conflict between his political career and his industry work, stressing that the kind of lobbying he does is not "going around knocking on MEPs' doors" but rather meeting with industry stakeholders to "help shape their telling of the story".

He added that EIS is just "a way of making a living" and that while he has no ambitions to return to European politics, he remains "engaged" with the major political issues of the day.

Enlargement a moral duty
"Enlargement represented a high watermark of European politics and it is fascinating to see in the past 12 months how quickly the tide has ebbed away", he remarked.

On the constitution, he commented that the default position of the EU is not zero but the sum total of the existing treaties, with European institutions seemingly drifting into denial and paralysis rather than showing strong leadership and asking 'what next?'

Mr Cox also spoke forcefully on enlargement, saying he rejects the "false argument" that eastern European countries contributed to French economic problems - which pre-date their entry into the EU by a decade.

He stated that Brussels has a "duty of care" toward the western Balkans in terms of promoting stability through the accession process.

"It would be not only shameful but immoral for the EU to turn its back on the western Balkans", Mr Cox stated.

The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre, re. Globalization
24 Crawford Avenue
Dublin 9

Sunday 31 July 2005

Dear Friends,
The remark below by EU Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen on
"globalization" being EU policy may perhaps interest you.

Referring to the EU's "Lisbon agenda" to promote competititiveness in
Europe, Verheugen said that this must not be scaled back after the
rejection by French and Dutch voters of the "Treaty Establishing a
Constitution for Europe".

He said: "The agenda must and will continue. Globalization is not something
China imposed on us, but something we have done ourselves. People must be
told that globalization is our policy."

It is often claimed, especially by some naive people on the political Left,
that the EU is a defence against the forces of so-called "globalization",
or that it is an entity which can control those forces.

That this belief is an illusion is shown by Verheugen's remark, which is
carried on page 1 of the "International Herald Tribune" of Wednesday 8 June
last.

Yours etc.

Anthony Coughlan
Director

EU clears GM maize despite 14 member State's opposition

EU to recover misspent farm money

Software bill better off in bin, Pat Cox says


THE HANDSTAND	august 2005
IRELAND OF THE WELCOMES...... EU clears GM maize despite 14 member State's opposition 09.08.2005 - 09:53 CET \| By Lisbeth Kirk The European Commission on Monday (8 August) approved the import of genetically modified maize despite opposition from 14 member states. The maize, known as MON863, has been engineered by the American biotech company, Monsanto, to resist the corn rootworm insect by producing a toxin in the plant. According to the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth Europe, food safety studies of the GM maize on rats showed significantly different levels of white blood cells, kidney weights and kidney structure, as well as a lower albumin/globulin rate in the rats fed the GM maize. But the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded the MON863 maize is as safe as conventional maize and unlikely to produce adverse effects. MON863 is the third GM product to be approved by the commission since the end of the EU’s six-year moratorium in April last year. In May 2004, the Commission gave the go-ahead to the Swiss firm Syngenta's application to import BT-11 sweet corn into the 25-nation bloc and in October 2004 Monsanto was given the go-ahead to market foods and food ingredients derived from the genetically modified maize NK603. A majority of member states were opposed to the clearances, but did not hold a qualified majority of votes to decide the matter. Under EU rules, the commission is allowed to take a final decision, if the Council is unable to. On 24 June, the Environment Council failed to reach a position on the proposal to allow the import of MON83. 14 member states voted against, while seven countries (Germany, Estonia, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and the UK) voted in favour and four (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Spain and Ireland) abstained. The authorisation now granted to Monsanto is valid for 10 years, but covers only the import and the use of the maize as animal feed. Next steps The commission underlined that the product would be clearly labelled as containing genetically modified maize. "Its post-marketing monitoring will be assured through a unique identifier assigned to the maize to enable its traceability", it said in a press release. The next step will be a decision in September by EU agriculture ministers on the food application for the same maize. Environmentalists are hoping for ministers to use this last opportunity to block import of the GM maize. "They must use the opportunity to protect their citizens, stand up to the commission, and reject it once and for all," said Helen Holder, GMO campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth. Under EU legislation, no import, including that of animal feed, is allowed until the food application has been authorized. "In this case, no imports will be able to start unless the MON863 food application is authorised", according to the Friends of Earth Europe. EU to recover misspent farm money 25.07.2005 - 17:35 CET \| By Honor Mahony The European Commission on Monday (25 July) announced it is to recover €113.7 million in misspent farm subsidies from member states. Money is to be recovered where members have not shown enough controls on how the funds are spent, or where the money has been spent in breach of EU rules on the common agriculture policy (CAP). "This is a vitally important process in making sure that the CAP budget is properly spent and that all unduly spent amounts are recovered. We have made great strides over recent years in our efforts to improve control procedures and I am determined that these efforts will continue in the future", said farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel in a statement. The member states hit by Monday's decision are Belgium, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Greece must pay the most, owing €62.53 million. It has been charged €38.55 million for "weaknesses in the control of animal-eligibility criteria for the ewe and goat premium" and €23.98 million for shortcomings on tobacco aid payments. France will have to refund €18.44 million for double payments on rural development expenditure, and €14.52 million for money wrongly allocated to the wine sector. Spain has been asked to pay €16.99 million for missing payment deadlines for fruit and vegetables. Farm subsidies account for 40 percent of the EU's total budget and were the principle cause of the collapse of a summit last month on future funding of the EU. Certain member states, such as the UK and Sweden, want the system thoroughly reformed so that more EU money is spent on research and development and other job-boosting areas. But the EU's farm policy still has its vociferous supporters, principally France, who say there will be no reforms to the system before 2013. Treaty gives CIA powers over Irish citizens? By Dan Buckley US INVESTIGATORS, including CIA agents, will be allowed interrogate Irish citizens on Irish soil in total secrecy, under an agreement signed between Ireland and the US last week. Suspects will also have to give testimony and allow property to be searched and seized even if what the suspect is accused of is not a crime in Ireland. Under 'instruments of agreement' signed last week by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, Ireland and the US pledged mutual co-operation in the investigation of criminal activity. It is primarily designed to assist America's so-called 'war on terror' in the wake of the September 11 atrocities. The deal was condemned yesterday by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) as "an appalling signal of how the rights of Irish citizens are considered by the minister when engaging in international relations". The ICCL said it appeared to go far beyond even what has been agreed between EU countries. On signing the agreement, the minister said that "the international community must do everything it can to combat terrorism with every means at its disposal. "Ireland will not be found wanting," he added. The treaty will give effect to agreements on Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition signed by the EU and the US in June 2003. These are aimed at building on mutual assistance and extradition arrangements. Although the Department of Justice insists that the arrangement merely updates existing agreements, it goes much further. The US may ask Irish authorities: To track down people in Ireland. Transfer prisoners in Irish custody to the US. Carry out searches and seize evidence on behalf of the US Government. It also allows US authorities access to an Irish suspect's confidential bank information. The Irish authorities must keep all these activities secret if asked to do so by the US. The person who will request co-operation is US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the man who, as White House counsel, instigated the notorious 'torture memo' to US President George W Bush which advised how far CIA agents could go in torturing prisoners. The person to whom the request is sent is the Minister for Justice. About 20,000 immigrants, who have not been charged with any crime, are currently in prison in the US. In two recent US Supreme Court cases, the US Government argued that US citizens could be imprisoned indefinitely without charge if the president designated them as "enemy combatants". ICCL director Aisling Reidy said: "An extraordinary aspect to this treaty is, despite its scope and its potential to violate basic constitutional and human rights, that all this happened without debate or transparency. "To agree to give such powers to a government which has allowed detention of its own citizens without access to a lawyer for over a year, which has legitimised Guantanamo Bay and the interrogation techniques there, without public debate, is an appalling signal of how highly or not the rights of Irish citizens are considered by the minister when engaging in international relations." The Department of Justice said it was wrong to say the treaty happened without debate, as the agreements update and supplement existing arrangements, and the EU-US agreement has been scrutinised by the Oireachtas four times since December 2002. A spokesperson also rejected that the measures go beyond what was agreed between EU countries. Legislation will be required to give effect to some elements of the Mutual Legal Assistance Instrument. The necessary provisions will be contained in the Criminal Justice (Mutual Assistance) Bill which Mr McDowell expects to publish shortly. http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sg46g7Ks0cvBEsg7OWirIStPSk.asp AND JUST INCASE WE THINK EUROPE WILL TAKE SOME INTEREST IN US, HERE IS THE LATEST FROM PETER MANDELSON - that bright spark, who said on hearing of the No Votes from France and Holland re the European Constitution - " a golden opportunity to assert fresh political leadership" Brussels seeks TV makeover By Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent The Times ALFIE MOON, the EastEnders market trader, could soon be informing his customers about the benefits of EU food safety legislation and Brussels consumer protection directives. It is all part of a European Commission plan to combat rising Euroscepticism. The Commission, announcing a long-awaited "communications action plan" yesterday, hopes to work with programme makers across the continent to promote positive messages. Borrowing a UN tactic, it also intends to approach Europhile celebrities, such as the comedian Eddie Izzard, to act as ambassadors to sell the benefits of Brussels law-making. The Commission wants to make programmes, possibly quiz shows and docudramas, that sell the EU vision. The strategy was devised with the help of Peter Mandelson, the European Trade Commissioner and former new Labour spin-doctor. It involves hiring an army of "communication specialists", running communications courses for its staff, training journalists and inviting them on trips with Commissioners, and setting up focus groups to shape the way policies are promoted. There will also be a special rebuttal unit, aimed at the British media, to try to kill off misleading stories before people start believing them. There are 50 action points, the most ambitious of which is the abolition of Euro-speak, so that the public can understand what Eurocrats are saying. Mr Mandelson said that, after the two referendum defeats: "I sense that the Commission today has a golden opportunity to assert this fresh political leadership." Software bill better off in bin, Pat Cox says 08.07.2005 - 14:04 CET \| By Andrew Rettman EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe is better off without the software patent directive, industry lobbyist and former European Parliament president Pat Cox said in an interview with the EUobserver, after MEPs binned the law earlier this week. The Irish politician led MEPs through enlargement under his 2002 to mid-2004 presidency and has acted as advisor to the European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) on the software bill since late last year. "The rejection by parliament is an act of prudence - no directive is better than a bad directive", Mr Cox continued, adding that the law might have turned Europe into a net consumer of software instead of a net producer in time. "This is the outcome I would have fought for, even if I had been an elected representative", he remarked. Under the status quo, IT firms can patent software innovations under the individual rules of the 25 member states as well as the European Patents Office in Munich, which has no formal ties with the EU. The European Commission originally proposed a directive harmonising rules on computer code copyright across the bloc, but socialist EP rapporteur Michel Rocard pushed to limit the bill to physical inventions only, with the final draft falling between two stools. Mr Cox explained that the final draft contained enough "legal uncertainty" to damage intellectual property rights of both small and large software companies and could have led to the exodus of firms such as SAP which employs 6,500 people and invests €850 million a year on software research in the EU alone. He added that public debate lapsed into stereotypes of small IT firms struggling against big business' attempts to lock them out of the sector, but that smaller players also rely on code copyright to make their software tradeable. "Software is a new frontier in a very old debate", he noted. "Abraham Lincoln said that we should 'add the fuel of interest to the fire of genius' when writing to defend the US patent system". Cox reinvents himself EICTA is the first major client of Mr Cox's Washington DC-registered lobbying firm, European Integration Solutions (EIS). The ex-EP president said he is "happily reinventing himself" from being a political "generalist" to an IT consultant but maintains a public profile via pro-bono publico work with NGOs such as Friends of Europe and The European Movement. He did not remark on any potential conflict between his political career and his industry work, stressing that the kind of lobbying he does is not "going around knocking on MEPs' doors" but rather meeting with industry stakeholders to "help shape their telling of the story". He added that EIS is just "a way of making a living" and that while he has no ambitions to return to European politics, he remains "engaged" with the major political issues of the day. Enlargement a moral duty "Enlargement represented a high watermark of European politics and it is fascinating to see in the past 12 months how quickly the tide has ebbed away", he remarked. On the constitution, he commented that the default position of the EU is not zero but the sum total of the existing treaties, with European institutions seemingly drifting into denial and paralysis rather than showing strong leadership and asking 'what next?' Mr Cox also spoke forcefully on enlargement, saying he rejects the "false argument" that eastern European countries contributed to French economic problems - which pre-date their entry into the EU by a decade. He stated that Brussels has a "duty of care" toward the western Balkans in terms of promoting stability through the accession process. "It would be not only shameful but immoral for the EU to turn its back on the western Balkans", Mr Cox stated. The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre, re. Globalization 24 Crawford Avenue Dublin 9 Sunday 31 July 2005 Dear Friends, The remark below by EU Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen on "globalization" being EU policy may perhaps interest you. Referring to the EU's "Lisbon agenda" to promote competititiveness in Europe, Verheugen said that this must not be scaled back after the rejection by French and Dutch voters of the "Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe". He said: "The agenda must and will continue. Globalization is not something China imposed on us, but something we have done ourselves. People must be told that globalization is our policy." It is often claimed, especially by some naive people on the political Left, that the EU is a defence against the forces of so-called "globalization", or that it is an entity which can control those forces. That this belief is an illusion is shown by Verheugen's remark, which is carried on page 1 of the "International Herald Tribune" of Wednesday 8 June last. Yours etc. Anthony Coughlan Director