A4-0084/96

Resolution on the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on industrial cooperation with the countries of Central/Eastern Europe (COM(95)0071 - C4-0108/95)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament (COM(95)0071 - C4-0108/95),

- having regard to its resolution of 30 November 1994 on the European Union's strategy to prepare for the accession of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) ((OJ C 363, 19.12.1994, p. 16.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on External Economic Relations and the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy (A4-0084/96),

A. aware of the drastic upheavals Europe has been going through since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, which do not merely involve economic problems, but also present new challenges in terms of foreign and defence policy,

B. having regard to the express wish of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to accede to the EU as soon as possible, and to the EU's declared readiness to create the necessary conditions for enlargement at the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference,

C. recognizing the achievements of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe during the process of political and economic reform, and the support provided by the EU under the Europe Agreements and the PHARE programme,

D. whereas, although economic growth in the CEEC is expected to display an upward trend and exceed the rate recorded in the EU, GDP per caput in these countries is, on average, 50% lower than that of the Community, implying a need to step up the drive towards real convergence and promote structural reforms to provide economic and social cohesion,

E. conscious that mutual cooperation is conditional on respect for human rights and the rights of minorities and on the stability of democracy and the rule of law in the CEEC,

1. Is aware that the opening up and eventual enlargement of the EU to include Central and Eastern Europe is changing the locational parameters for European industry, and calls on the Commission to ensure, in pursuing its strategy for growth and employment and its pre-accession strategy, that the process of economic restructuring they entail in both the CEEC and the EU Member States benefits the people of all the countries affected;

2. Regards closer cooperation between the industrial sectors of the EU and the CEEC, which must be based on the principle of reciprocity, as playing an important role in the process of economic reform and the preparation of the CEEC for their eventual membership of the Union;

3. Welcomes, therefore, the Commission's intention of developing industrial cooperation as an integral part of the strategy to prepare the CEEC for accession to the EU, as acknowledged at the Essen European Council in December 1994 and set out in practical terms in the White Paper on the integration of the CEEC into the EU's internal market;

4. Points out that it lies within the Commission's responsibilities to comprehensively develop the framework conditions for successful rapprochement between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and to pay particular attention to the problematic situation of the infrastructure of environmental services, which do not yet provide a basis for environmentally acceptable investment; supports, therefore,the Commission's proposals to insist on the modernization of industry in Central and Eastern European countries being subject to an environmental impact assessment in line with European standards as applied in the EU countries; calls on the Commission to promote, as a priority, the creation of the necessary legal and administrative framework and its application and enforcement in the CEEC;

5. Points out that cooperation between industrial undertakings and associations in the EU and the CEEC is primarily a task for industry itself, and that in this context the EU's main role is to create the necessary legal framework; welcomes, in this connection, EU activities to foster forms of cooperation such as the round table talks with industry as a means of overcoming national locational policies;

6. Regards the creation of a favourable business climate and the promotion of the reciprocal exchange of information between the industries of the EU and CEEC as an important area for action by the Commission, which must take account of the specific circumstances in individual CEEC and of the special relationships between various individual Member States and the CEEC;

7. Regards further privatization of previously state-owned undertakings, including those in the industrial sector, on the part of the CEEC as an important pre-condition for successful industrial cooperation, the main emphasis of which must be to achieve the transition to a modern, environmentally acceptable industrial system;

8. Is convinced that this will provide greater incentives for the influx of investment capital from the EU to the CEEC, which will form the basis for long-term cooperation between undertakings and will also provide the CEEC with the technical know-how required for the reform process;

9. Calls on both sides to cooperate closely in the harmonization of technical specifications, standards, quality controls, and testing and licensing procedures on the basis of the programme set out in the White Paper, to ensure that these do not create administrative obstacles to closer industrial cooperation and that social and environmental dumping are not permitted;

10. Welcomes, therefore, the Commission's efforts to ensure that the rules of origin for CEEC products offer the possibility of cumulation for all the CEEC;

11. Stresses the importance of free access to EU markets for CEEC products, without which there would be no prospect of successful industrial cooperation;

12. Calls on the Commission to give greater support to promoting local trade and to exploit the advantages of direct cross-border cooperation to show how administrative reforms can be improved to strengthen local performance in these regions by establishing pilot schemes for local cooperation; in particular financial and legal barriers should be removed;

13. Stresses the importance of comprehensive professional training and retraining for the success of the economic reforms in the CEEC and calls on the Commission to take due account of this point in its industrial cooperation activities by including the CEEC in the EU's education and research programmes;

14. Hopes that exchange programmes to provide young people with vocational training and language skills will make a significant contribution to mutual industrial cooperation;

15. Notes the importance of good relations between the social partners as the basis of a social market economy and therefore regards the development of legislation on employment contracts and collective agreements, and arrangements for its implementation in practice, as an important task for industrial cooperation;

16. Is convinced that the CEEC will also benefit from closer industrial cooperation amongst themselves, and therefore suggests that the requisite preconditions be created in the context of the Central European Free Trade Area;

17. Calls for special consideration to be given to industrial cooperation with the Baltic States, as they are in particular need of such cooperation in the aftermath of their independence and subsequent exclusion from the economic system of the former Soviet Union, and points out that such activities should promote closer cooperation throughout the Baltic region;

18. Recalls that industrial cooperation must go hand-in-hand with an effective competition policy, to prevent such cooperation being abused to the detriment of competition; regards the Europe Agreements as an appropriate basis for close cooperation between both sides in this area;

19. Considers that closer industrial cooperation with CIS states bordering on the CEEC would be desirable in the context of the partnership agreements and the TACIS programme, and should be coordinated with the EU's industrial cooperation with the CEEC; calls on the Commission, therefore, to give more thought to this point in future;

20. Would like the EU's industrial cooperation with the CEEC to be coordinated with the initiatives of other Western industrialized nations and international organizations such as the UN, IMF, the World Bank and the OECD;

21. Points out that the energy sector is the basis of the process of economic transformation and that existing traditional and centralised structures are not suited to the transformation and development of a diverse and environmentally sound industrial landscape in the CEEC, and that there is, therefore, an urgent need to transform the energy sector so that it can be used on an environmentally sustainable basis; in addition to the introduction of a new legal framework, swift investment is also required in this area;

22. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.