Battle ahead over diplomatic service? A veteran member of the European Parliament has signaled that a major political battle could develop over a planned EU diplomatic service. The new EU treaty currently being prepared is expected to include provisions to set up an ‘external action service’, a team of diplomats representing the EU’s governments in the wider world. Elmar Brok, one of the European Parliament’s representatives in the discussions on the treaty, has identified the proposed service as one of the trickiest questions to be addressed in the coming months. He regards the issue as a ‘balance of power’ one as there is likely to be much wrangling between the EU’s most powerful institutions over which one of them will control the service. The EU’s foreign ministers are to assess the latest state of play with the treaty at a meeting in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, this weekend (7-8 September). While Lisbon is adamant that an agreement on the new treaty should be agreed by the end of this year, a number of serious hurdles remain. Among the most serious is the objection raised by Poland to a proposed new voting system at the Council of Ministers. Warsaw is seeking that a clause be inserted into the treaty under which it could block any decision by EU governments if it believes that its vital interests would be compromised. Most of the Union’s other states are, however, seeking to water down the Polish proposal in order to give it less legal weight.
MEPs insist on more aid to health and schools The European Parliament is demanding increased aid for basic health and education in poor countries before it approves next year's budget for the 27-nation bloc. MEPs have recently begun scrutinising the EU's draft budget for 2008, which is set to exceed 129 billion euros (176 billion dollars). Initial discussions within the assembly indicate that it could refuse to give its blessing to some of the proposed expenditure on development aid in a vote slated for December. Ralf Walter, a German Socialist MEP, said that he was dissatisfied with the level of financing going to health and education in poor countries. Under the EU's new Development Cooperation Instrument, which covers aid to Asia and Latin America, the Union is legally obliged to allocate at least 20 percent of its assistance to health and education. Walter, who has been tasked with preparing an official response to the budget for the Parliament's development committee, is seeking explicit commitments that the obligation will be honoured. He contended that respecting this commitment is especially important in Asia, as the continent has the highest absolute number of people living in poverty. Walter is proposing that some €103 million in aid to Asia should be placed in reserve. This would be slightly less than one-fifth of the total amount earmarked for Asia in the 2008 budget. According to Walter, the €103 million will be released once the the European Commission has shown that money allocated for Asia is being "genuinely used" to fight disease and illiteracy.
Strauss Kahn ‘last European’ to head IMF? The EU will be unable to continue dictating who should head the International Monetary Fund, the president of the eurozone finance ministers has recognised. Nominations for the post of the IMF’s managing director closed last week (31 August), with just two candidates in the race: Dominique Strauss Kahn, the former French finance minister who is being supported by the EU, and Josef Tosovsky, the former Czech central bank, proposed by Russia. Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s Prime Mminister and head of the eurozone grouping, has conceded that this could be the last time for many years that a European will head the IMF. Although most of the IMF’s 185 member governments represent poor countries, its top official has been a European ever since the fund’s inception because of a post World War II agreement with the US on control of the world’s key economic institutions. “The next director will certainly not be a European,” Juncker told FT Deutschland. “In the Euro-group and among EU finance ministers, everyone is aware that Strauss Kahn will probably be the last European to become director of the IMF for the foreseeable future.” Still, Juncker defended the EU’s decision to nominate Strauss-Kahn, describing the French Socialist as a “well-known reformer” who is capable of adjusting the IMF “to the expectations and interests of developing countries.”
EU aid must not push trade liberalisation in South Africa, say MEPs The European Parliament has sought clarification about whether an EU aid plan for South Africa could be used to push that country into far-scale economic liberalisation. Some €980 million has been earmarked for South Africa in 2007-13 under a strategy paper drawn up by the European Commission. In a new analysis of this package, the Parliament’s development committee has queried why the plan argues that “trade in services needs to be liberalised” in South Africa. According to the committee, it is “questionable” if that point is related to the fight against poverty. For that reason, it has asked the Commission to ensure that none of the planned aid will go to liberalising trade in services. The committee’s paper nonetheless argues that it should not formally object to the aid plan, provided it is given some reassurances by the Commission. All of the trade and economic activities to be financed under the programme would be “pro-poor and pro-small businesses”, the committee found, while the fight against AIDS has been recognised as a “cross-cutting issue”. But the committee also says that there is an insufficient level of attention given to gender inequality and to primary education in the plan.
Mandelson objects to Thai efforts on cheap AIDS drugs Peter Mandelson, the European commissioner for trade, has called on Thailand to revise its efforts to provide cheap medicines to people with AIDS over concerns that the country could be undermining global rules on intellectual property. Since last year, Thailand has issued compulsory licenses on several patented medicines to ensure that they are made available at more affordable prices than they would otherwise be. Although the Bangkok government insists that it is entitled to take such steps under rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), its actions have been criticised by Mandelson. In a recent letter to the Thai government, Mandelson expressed concern that Bangkok "may be taking a new approach to access to medicines" by stating that if drug companies wish to do business in Thailand, they should offer their drugs for no more than 5 percent above the cost of generic versions of the products in question. He argued that the approach risks forcing drug companies to abandon patents and that this could have a negative impact for research into and the development of new medicines. In a 2001 declaration issued in Doha, Qatar, the WTO stated that intellectual property rules should not hamper countries from addressing public health emergencies. While Mandelson said he supported that declaration, he claimed that it does not "appear to justify a systematic policy to apply compulsory licenses whenever medicines exceed certain prices." He called on Thailand to consider entering into direct discussions with companies holding the rights on particular drugs, rather than threatening to overrule those patents. The humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has protested at Mandelson's call. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, director of MSF's access to medicines campaign, said that this call "blatantly ignores basic public health safeguards" agreed at WTO level.
