General Report on the activities of the European Union 1999

European Commission Secretariat-General

Description

Activities of the institutions and bodies
Construction of Europe

Sujets

• Annual report
• European Communities
• Single market
• Institutions of the European Union
• Citizenship of the European Union
• Droit et juridique

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-SECRETARIAT-GENERAL
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
GENERAL REPORT
ON THE ACTIVITIES OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION
lá"
yj'j European Commission
General Report
on the Activities of
the European Union
1999
Brussels · Luxembourg, 2000 The General Report on the Activities of the European Union — 7339 was
adopted by the European Commission on 28 January 2000 under reference
number SEC(1999) 1000 final.
A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on
the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int).
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication.
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2000
ISBN 92-828-8155-5
© European Communities, 2000
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Belgium The President and the Members of the European Commission to the President of
the European Parliament
Madam,
We have the honour to present the General Report on the Activities of the Euro­
pean Union for 1999, which the Commission is required to publish by Article 212
of the EC Treaty, Article 17 of the ECSC Treaty and Article 125 of the EAEC
Treaty.
In accordance with the procedure described in the declaration on the system for
fixing Community farm prices contained in the Accession Documents of 22 January
1972, the Commission will shortly be sending Parliament the 1999 Report on the
Agricultural Situation in the European Union.
And, in accordance with an undertaking given to Parliament on 7 June 1971, the
Commission is preparing its XXIXth Annual Report on Competition Policy.
Yours faithfully,
Brussels, 8 February 2000
Romano PRODI Günter VERHEUGEN
President
Neil KINNOCK Christopher PATTEN
Vicc-Presidenr
Loyola de PALACIO Pascal I.A.MY
dcl VALLE-LERSUNDI ï , Vice-President
Mario MONTI David BYRNE
Franz FISCHLER Michel BARNIER
Erkki LIIKANEN Viviane REDING
Frederik BOLKESTEIN Michaele SCHREYER r
¡¿¿¿¿¿t&y"»"-^
Philippe BUSQUIN Margot WALLSTRÖM
Pedro SOLDES MIRA António VITORINO
Poul NIELSON Anna DiAMANTOPOULOU NOTE
Legislative instruments under the co-decision procedure are mentioned in the
Report followed by '(Table I)'. Instruments under the cooperation procedure are
followed by '(Table ID'. Instruments under the consultation procedure are followed
by '(Table III)'. International agreements are followed by '(Table IV)'. No footnotes
are given for these instruments, which are listed in four separate tables annexed
to the Report. The relevant references (OJ, COM, Bull.) for all the stages of the
legislative procedure concerning each instrument, together with the appropriate
point numbers in text, are given in the tables.
As a rule, no references are given in text for intermediate stages of procedures
which started before 1 January 1999 and were not completed at 31 December 1999.
These references also appear in the tables. Contents
THE EUROPEAN UNION IN 1999 1
CHAPTER I —AGENDA 2000 7
CHAPTER II —UNION CITIZENSHIP 11
Section 1 —The right to free movement and residence
Section 2 — The right to vote and to stand for election 12
Section 3 — Right to diplomatic protection3
Section 4 — Right to petition and right of access
to the Ombudsman 14
CHAPTER III — HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS 15
Section 1 — European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and general aspects 1
Section 2 — Trafficking in human beings7
Section 3 — Ethics in science and new technologies 18
Section 4 — Outside the European Union9
CHAPTER IV — THE COMMUNITY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AREA 21
Section 1 —Economic and monetary policy 2
Priority activities and objectives
Economic situation 21 policy coordination2
Economic and monetary union5
International economic, monetary and financial matters 28
GEN. REP. EU 1999 VI CONTENTS
Financial activities 29
Section — Statistical system 37
Priority activities and objectives
Framework and guidelines
Publications8
Section 3 — Employment and social policy 40
Priority activities and objectives
Social action programme
Employment 4
Social protection and social security3
Combating discrimination4
Freedom of movement for workers5
Labour law, working conditions and industrial relations 4
Health and safety at work6
Social dialogue8
Measures to promote social integration 4
Structural operations9
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions 50
International cooperation 51
Seciton 4 — Equal opportunities2
Section 5 — Internal market4
Priority activities and objectives
Overall strategy
Free movement of goods6
Free of persons 59
Freedom to provide services 60
Free movement of capital and financial integration 62
Taxation
Company law
Intellectual and industrial property4
Data protection5
Public procurement
GEN. REP. EU 1999 CONTENTS VII
Section 6 — Competition policy 66
Priority activities and objectives
Competition rules applying to businesses
Sfafe aid 75
International cooperation7
Section — Enterprise9
Priority activities and objectives
Competitiveness
Innovation policy 82
Policy to promote small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 83
Individual sectors6
Section — Research and technology 90
Priority activities and objectives
Community RTD policy
Joint Research Centre (JRC)
Implementation of the fifth framework programme 9
Coal and steel technical research9
Section 9 — Education and culture 100
Priority activities and objectives
Education, vocational training and youth
Culture and audiovisual policy6
Section 10 — Economic and social cohesion 112
Priority activities and objectives
Structural measures, regional policies
Innovative measures and other regional operations 125
Cohesion Fund 12
Section 11 —Measures for the most remote regions8
Section 12 — Trans-European networks9
Priority activities and objectives
General matters and financing
Transport 130
Telematics and telecommunications
GEN. REP. EU 1999 VIII CONTENTS
Energy 131
Section 13 —Energy3
Priority activities and objectives
Community energy policy
Security of supply and international cooperation 13
Internal energy market5
Trans-European energy networks6
Energy and the environment 13
Promotion of research and technological development8
Individual sectors9
Euratom Supply Agency 140
Siafe aid to the coal industry1
Section 14 — Transport2
Priority activities and objectives
Development of the common transport policy
Infrastructures and traffic management and navigation systems 143
Trans-European transport networks
Transport and the environment 14
Research and technological development4
Multimodal transport
Inland transport
Sea7
Air transport
Sfafe aid 149
International cooperation
Section 15 — Information society, telecommunications 150
Priority activities and objectives 15
Information society
Telecommunications policy3
Technological aspects4
Trans-European telecommunications networks
Advanced television services
Oafa protection5
International cooperation and regional aspects 15
GEN. REP. EU 1999