1 Commission

E COM 1 Commission The Bulletin of the European Communities gives details every month (eleven numbers per year) of the activities of the Commission and of the other Community institutions. lt is edited by the Secretariat of the Commission of the European Communities (rue de la Loi 200, 1049 Brussels) in the official languages of the Community and also in Spanish. Reproduction of the text is authorized on the condition that the source is indicated. In order to facilitate consultation of the Bulletin in the different language editions, the texts are numbered according to the following system : the first figure indicates the part, the second the chapter and the last two indicate the different points in the chapters. Quotations should be presented, therefore, in the following manner: Bull. EC 1- 1976, point 2108. The Supplements are published separately as annexes to the Bulletin. They include the official texts of the Commission (communications to the Council, reports, proposals) of the documents published under the double responsibility of the Council and of the Commission. The Supplements are not published in Spanish. BULLETIN OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES European Coal and Steel Community European Economic Community European Atomic Energy Community Commission of the European Communities General Secretariat Brussels no.2 1976 Manuscnpt fimshed 1n March 1976. 91h year contents EVENTS AND STUDIES 1. Programme of the Commission for 1976 . 6 2. Approach by the CMEA to the Community . 15 3. North-South Conference: Commencement of practical work 18 4. Meeting of Research Ministers . 20 ACTIVITIES 2ND PART IN JANUARY 1976 1. Functioning of the common market 24 - Customs union 24 - Internal common market 25 - Competition policy . 25 - Taxation policy and financ1al institutions 28 2. Economic and monetary union 29 - Economic, monetary and financial policy 29 - Social policy . 31 - Environment and protection of consumers 34 - Agricultural policy . 35 - Industrial and technological policy 40 - Science, research and development, education, scientific and technical information 41 - Energy policy . 45 -Transport policy . 46 3. External relations 48 - Multilateral negotiations 48 - Commercial policy 49 - Development and cooperation 51 - Commodities and world agreements 52 - International organizations 53 - Mediterranean countries 54 - African, Caribbean and Pacific countries 56 - Other countries 58 4. Institutions and organs of the Communities 59 - European Parliament 59 -Council 67 - Commission 69 - Court of Justice 71 - Economic and Social Committee 76 - European Investment Bank 78 3Ro PART DOCUMENTATION Publications of the European Communities Supplements 1976 1 /76 European Union - Report by Mr Leo Tindemans to the European Council *2/76 Opinion on Greek application for membership *3/76 Action programme in favour of migrant workers and their families 4/76 Common research and development policy -Objectives, priorities and resources *5/76 Protection of fundamental rights w1th1n the European Community * In preparat1on 1sT PART EVENTS AND STUDIES 1. Programme of the Commission for 1976 Commission: Programme 1976 Address by favour of staying in the Community. This was a hurdle which had to be cleared before we could Mr Fran<;ois-Xavier Ortoli, really start moving forward again. President of the Commission, Second, recent years have seen great progress in to the European Parliament institutional terms: decisions can now be taken on 10 February 1976 more efficiently and are subject to greater demo cratic control. It has been decided that Parliament will be 1101. 'The year which has just begun will be elected by direct universal suffrage, and a date this present Commission's last year in office. has been set. Parliament's budgetary powers have Naturally, we want to make it a key year in the been extended. Its meetings with the Council building of Europe, so you will understand me if have been more frequent and have dealt with I dwell upon the projects we would like to com matters of greater substance-at times quite plete and those we would like to see launched heatedly; we welcome this as a new step along before we leave. However, before outlining our the road towards a more democratic system. programme for the year ahead I feel that, even more than in past years, we need to look back at Nineteen seventy-five was also the year in which what the Community has achieved and to make the European Council was set up. When I spoke a true and fair assessment of its successes and to you here last year, I looked to the future in failures. a spirit of optimism qualified by certain appre hensions: I was concerned that the Community 1102. In point of fact, the last few years have machinery might be encroached upon by the less seen a good deal of both. reliable procedures of intergovernmental coopera In economic and industrial terms they are the tion. The risk is still there, but I am in no doubt worst we have experienced since the ehd of the that something has been gained: the European second world war. It was not until late in 1975 Council has provided us with a new organ cap that the economies of certain Member States able of taking major decisions under the Treaties looked as though the beginnings of a recovery which set the future course of the Community were in sight and the upturn took its first hesitant and its Member States. Take, for instance, the steps forward. What is more, the economic crisis successful conclusion of the renegotiations the had different effects in each Member State, and decision on direct elections to Parliament o~ the although, with vigorous encouragement from the decision that the Community would speak with Commission, serious attempts have been made one voice in the North-South Dialogue. to get economic policies closer in step with each On the whole, then, the European Council can other, the gaps between us are wider now than be said to be an asset, but let us hope that it will they were when the crisis began. continue to combine flexibility, decisiveness and On the other hand there is a greater awareness creativity with respect for the institutional system of Europe. The need to build Europe as a united and the rules laid down in the Treaty. response to problems facing all of us has been felt more keenly both by the powers that be and A great deal of fruitful consideration has been by the man in the street. given to European integration-witness the re ports made by the individual institutions and Three very important factors go to illustrate this. subsequently the Tindemans Report. I shall be First, British public opinion came down firmly in coming back to this later. 6 Bull. EC 2-1976 Commission: Programme 1976 Commission: Programme 1976 The third of the factors to which I alluded is the being channelled to our poorer regions and a definite progress that has been made in imple further dimension has been added to the Com menting those common policies which are the munity's commitment to solidarity; stuff of the Community's life. • after so many years of apathy a decision has A shining example here is our policy on devel at last been taken to get the Community institu opment in the third world. The Lome Conven tions moving again on energy policy. tion provides forty-six African, Caribbean and Pa cific countries with a whole series of develop- Another item to be entered on the credit side is that measures to counter the economic crisis ~ ment facilities on a hitherto unparalleled scale; have not led to a resurgence of protectionism in some of these, such as the export earnings sta r the Community. This is no small achievement. bilization scheme, are truly audacious in their novelty. Lome goes well beyond the merely But I would be falsifying the picture if I failed to economic: it gives a complete picture of how the mention the debit items. The biggest of these is Community views its links with the developing the absence of any decisive progress towards countries-peace, dialogue and cooperation. In economic and monetary union. Circumstances addition to Lome we have introduced meas are largely to blame, but there has been a lack of ures-such as the generalized system of prefer conviction too. Yet it must be made clear that ences-whereby the Community can take action economic and monetary union is not only essen all over the world and, as was seen in the United tial to European integration: it is also, quite Nations, have further developed our global ap simply, the only remedy for the ills that beset us proach to relations with the third world. individually. Our overall Mediterranean approach has pro The Commission and, I hope, the other institu gressed beyond the confines of trade relations to tions will therefore be concentrating on these give expression to the full potential of our co items. operation policy. We-have just completed the ne gotiation of agreements with the three Maghreb countries, and similar agreements have been of 1103. This year will be devoted mainly to pro fered to Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. jects of a practical nature, and we shall seek to Shortly we expect to begin negotiations fo.r an work with the facilities already available to us in outline agreement on economic and commercial order to discharge three fundamental imperatives. cooperation with Canada, and there is a prospect of talks on a trade agreement with China. The first of these, and the most immediate, is to present a united front on the major external The Community has made significant progress in problems of the day. its economic policies at home. Three aspects The second is that real progress must at last be strike me as being particularly promising: made towards economic and monetary union and • the Member States are making increasing ef that the common policies which are the living forts at concerted action on the basis of general proof of European integration must be strength economic policy recommendations from the ened.

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