THE HANDSTAND

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sweden has condemned an attack on its labour rules by the internal market commissioner and threatened to withdraw its support for the EU services directive - championed by Brussels.

Internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy said on Wednesday (5 October) that the European Commission would stand against Sweden in a legal case over the country's collective wage agreements.The EU's top court is supposed to decide whether Stockholm can refer to collective agreements when dealing with companies employing foreigners to work in Sweden.

But Sweden has reacted furiously to Mr McCreevy’s statements.

Swedish industry minister Thomas Ostros suggested Mr McCreevy's statement was viewed as an attack on the most successful social models in Europe. "To hear that the commission is behind a lunge against a member state which has regulated its labour market in a different way than most other member states, but with the same purpose and goal, is unacceptable", Mr Ostros wrote in a letter to Brussels.

Scandinavian countries generally do not regulate the labour market by law, but by agreements between the trade unions and employers. Mr Ostros added he hoped the opinion was of a single commissioner, not the line of the whole college, as "a lot of member states will be worried and have a hard time explaining to their citizens what European collaboration is about". The minister also suggested the dispute could "affect the Swedish governments possibility to work in a constructive way together with the commission on the service directive."

Surprise in the commission
Mr McCreevy’s statement also came as a surprise to the commission itself which has not yet made up its mind on the matter. It is to be consulted by the court’s judges before they take a decision.
However a spokesperson confirmed that commission officials have not yet drawn up a common position on the case yet. "The Commission needs to agree on its opinion which it will present to the court, and the discussion about this has so far not been featuring on the agenda up until December," said the spokeswoman.

Progress on the services directive, which is strongly pushed by Mr McCreevy himself, now threatens to become embroiled in the issue. The law, which aims to cut down barriers in Europe's services markets, has turned out to be very controversial but Sweden has so far proved to be one of the countries more supportive of it. According to an EU official, the recent war of words between Brussels and Stockholm could seriously affect the ongoing legislative work, and it could also come up at the forthcoming informal summit of EU leaders at Hampton Court near London in 27-28 October. Brussels is set to hammer out its report about the future of the European social model on 20 October and present it to the EU leaders at the summit.
update:The president of the European Commission has said his internal market
commissioner was misunderstood when earlier this month he appeared to
challenge a key part of Sweden's social model.

Article >> http://euobserver.com/?aid=20104&rk=1

Gerhard Schrõder spoke out:
"I can think of a recent disaster that shows what happens when a country neglects its duties of state towards its people," said Schröder.... My post as chancellor, which I still hold, does not allow me to name that country but you all know that I am talking about America," he said to laughter and applause.

Schröder fell out with Bush over the war in Iraq when he refused to commit German troops to the war and relations between the two leaders have remained chilly.

In another jab at the US president on Wednesday, Schröder spoke of British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "my British friend, who also has other friends," in a reference to the Anglo-American on Iraq.

EU Plans More Efficient Industrial Policy

October 05, 2005 08:50 AM ET
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/printarticle.asp?Feed=AP&Date=20051005&ID=5167671

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union on Monday announced new policies aimed at making European industry more efficient and flexible, rejecting pleas from France that the EU do more to protect the bloc's industry against competition from Asia and the Americas. "We are not going to shelter industry from competition," EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said, hitting back at French President Jacques Chirac, who criticized the European Commission for not protecting jobs in Europe.

"European industries can only benefit from open markets," Verheugen said.

The EU plan sets out seven new policy initiatives for the 25-nation bloc aimed at countering cheaper, more flexible industries in such new economic dynamos as China, India, and Brazil. Part of the plans, including drafting new intellectual property rights, fighting piracy of goods, and deregulation of such sectors as chemicals registration, are already in the works. Others depend on new EU funding on space research and telecommunications
technologies.

Verheugen said the new plans did not involve throwing millions of euros (dollars) in new aid at industry. Instead, they would represent a new commitment to cut red-tape, boost research and education, improve market access and restructure industry to be more flexible. "One thing we don't want to do is to go back to import quotas and protective tariffs," he said. "Manufacturing has a vital role to play in securing Europe's future prosperity," Verheugen told reporters. "There is no way back to the old days of protectionism and subsidies."

Industry and business group UNICE, which represents 20 million small, medium and large companies in Europe said the EU plans go "a step further toward the goal of strengthening Europe's competitiveness," and urged EU nations to adopt them "without delay."

French President Jacques Chirac severely criticized the European Commission, the EU's executive body, on Tuesday, saying it was doing little to defend European interests. The French government, which has traditionally had a more interventionist economic policy, appealed to Brussels after American computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. said it would cut thousands of job in Europe, including France. The French government has in past years also balked at attempts to open up European energy, services and other key sectors to competition.

Verheugen said the EU executive could not prevent companies from cutting jobs, but could help in encouraging industry to deal positively with economic downturns. "What we ideally want to do is to adopt a preventative, pro-active policy," Verheugen said. "The really important question in all of this is that we have to accept that change is inevitable."

The EU's manufacturing industry, which employs over 34 million people and accounts for three quarters of EU exports, has in recent years faced increasing competition from the new economic powers, especially China. Europe's textile industry called on the EU to help prevent cheaper textiles from flooding EU markets this year, after the EU dropped most quotas on Chinese imports in January. The EU signed a stopgap agreement with Beijing in the Spring to try to limit the damage to EU textile makers, giving them time to restructure.

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Less than five months ago, voters in France gave the thumbs down to the European Union's proposed new constitution when 55 per cent rejected it in a referendum.

A few days later, voters in the Netherlands dismissed it even more decisively, with 62 per cent saying No to the controversial treaty.

After these results from two of the EU's founder members, the constitution - which set out a blueprint for the future of the union and contained a weighty Charter of Fundamental Rights - was said by virtually all sides to be dead in the water, despite the fact that it had been endorsed by all EU heads of government.

Tony Blair breathed a sigh of relief because the French and the Dutch rejections meant that there was no point in going ahead with his plan to stage a referendum on the constitution in Britain next spring - a vote which looked impossible for him to win and which was seen by some as a possible finishing post for his time in Downing Street.

However, Brussels documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph are compelling proof of the desire of the European Commission to breathe new life into the corpse of the constitution - and in particular the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Document COM (2005) 172 effectively insists that the provisions of the charter must be enshrined in all new EU legislation. It baldly states: "This document sets out a methodology for ensuring that the charter is properly implemented in commission proposals."

New laws proposed by Brussels will be subject to "systematic and rigorous monitoring" to ensure that they comply with the charter, the document reveals.

Eurosceptics have also seized on a footnote to page two of the eight-page document, which establishes the primacy of case law handed down by the European Court of Justice over existing laws in member states.

The footnote accepts that the charter is not legally binding, but adds: "It contains the fundamental principles which have been held to be binding in case law as general principles of community law."

Last night, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Conservative Euro MP, said: "This shows that the commission has no intention of taking any notice of the voters in France and the Netherlands, who decisively rejected their blueprint for a federal super state."

Brussels bureaucrats were simply "cherry picking" the bits of the constitution they wanted to see implemented and forcing them through by the back door, he added.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights faced heavy criticism when it was drawn up because, for example, it could give the Army and the police in Britain the right to strike for the first time.

The right to education could allow Brussels to say how British schools are run. The charter also creates new rights to social security, housing assistance, health care and environmental protection - all with potentially serious consequences for the Government and British businesses.

The charter also permits a right to asylum, potentially handing full control of the UK's asylum system to the European courts.

Last night Liam Fox, the shadow foreign secretary, demanded an urgent explanation from Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, about the document, as Britain currently holds the European Union's rolling six-month presidency.

"I have repeatedly made clear my fear that the EU is determined to ignore the results of the two referenda and instead press ahead with the implementation of many elements of the Constitutional Treaty," he said. "This document confirms that those fears have been fully justified. It is simply not acceptable for EU governments and the commission to behave as though the Constitutional Treaty had come into force."

A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: "The constitution has not come into force. We are still in the position we were in before. It is right for the commission to ensure that anything it does not cut across the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The charter remains the most recent political declaration by the governments of EU member countries about the rights of their citizens."
The Sunday Telegraph, 16th October 2005, ECLUB BULLETIN.

Police chief - Lockerbie evidence was faked

Scotsman, 28 Aug '05

MARCELLO MEGA

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1855852005

A FORMER Scottish police chief has given lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial was fabricated. The retired officer - of assistant chief constable rank or higher - has testified that the CIA planted the tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people. The police chief, whose identity has not yet been revealed, gave the statement to lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, currently serving a life sentence in Greenock Prison.

The evidence will form a crucial part of Megrahi's attempt to have a retrial ordered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). The claims pose a potentially devastating threat to the reputation of the entire Scottish legal system.

The officer, who was a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland, is supporting earlier claims by a former CIA agent that his bosses "wrote the script" to incriminate Libya.

Last night, George Esson, who was Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway when Megrahi was indicted for mass murder, confirmed he was aware of the development. But Esson, who retired in 1994, questioned the officer's motives. He said: "Any police officer who believed they had knowledge of any element of fabrication in any criminal case would have a duty to act on that. Failure to do so would call into question their integrity, and I can't help but question their motive for
raising the matter now."

Other important questions remain unanswered, such as how the officer learned of the alleged conspiracy and whether he was directly involved in the inquiry. But sources close to Megrahi's legal team believe they may have finally discovered the evidence that could demolish the case against him. An insider told Scotland on Sunday that the retired officer approached them after Megrahi's appeal - before a bench of five Scottish judges - was dismissed in 2002. The insider said: "He said he believed he had crucial information. A meeting was set up and he gave a statement that supported the long-standing rumours that the key piece of evidence, a fragment of circuit board from a timing device that implicated Libya, had been planted by US agents.

"Asked why he had not come forward before, he admitted he'd been wary of breaking ranks, afraid of being vilified. "He also said that at the time he became aware of the matter, no one really
believed there would ever be a trial. When it did come about, he believed both accused would be acquitted. When Megrahi was convicted, he told himself he'd be cleared at appeal." The source added: "When that also failed, he explained he felt he had to come forward. "He has confirmed that parts of the case were fabricated and that evidence was planted. At first he requested anonymity, but has backed down and will be identified if and when the case returns to the appeal court."

The vital evidence that linked the bombing of Pan Am 103 to Megrahi was a tiny fragment of circuit board which investigators found in a wooded area many miles from Lockerbie months after the atrocity. The fragment was later identified by the FBI's Thomas Thurman as being part of a sophisticated timer device used to detonate explosives, and manufactured by the Swiss firm Mebo, which supplied it only to Libya and the East German Stasi.

At one time, Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was such a regular visitor to Mebo that he had his own office in the firm's headquarters. The fragment of circuit board therefore enabled Libya - and Megrahi - to be placed at the heart of the investigation. However, Thurman was later unmasked as a fraud who had given false evidence in American murder trials, and it emerged that he had little in the way of scientific qualifications. Then, in 2003, a retired CIA officer gave a statement to Megrahi's lawyers in which he alleged evidence had been planted.

The decision of a former Scottish police chief to back this claim could add enormous weight to what has previously been dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory. It has long been rumoured the fragment was planted to implicate Libya for political reasons.

The first suspects in the case were the Syrian-led Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), a terror group backed by Iranian cash. But the first Gulf War altered diplomatic relations with Middle East nations, and Libya became the pariah state.

Following the trial, legal observers from around the world, including senior United Nations officials, expressed disquiet about the verdict and the conduct of the proceedings at Camp Zeist, Holland. Those doubts were first fuelled when internal documents emerged from the offices of the US Defence Intelligence Agency. Dated 1994, more than two years after the Libyans were identified to the world as the bombers, they still described the PFLP-GC as the Lockerbie bombers. A source close to Megrahi's defence said: "Britain and the US were telling the world it was Libya, but in their private communications they acknowledged that they knew it was the PFLP-GC. "The case is starting to unravel largely because when they wrote the script, they never expected to have to act it out. Nobody expected agreement for a trial to be reached, but it was, and in preparing a manufactured case, mistakes were made."

Dr Jim Swire, who has publicly expressed his belief in Megrahi's innocence, said it was quite right that all relevant information now be put to the SCCRC. Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the atrocity, said last night: "I am aware that there have been doubts about how some of the evidence in the case came to be presented in court. "It is in all our interests that areas of doubt are thoroughly examined."

A spokeswoman for the Crown Office said: "As this case is currently being examined by the SCCRC, it would be inappropriate to comment."

No one from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland was available
to comment.

Sweden hits back at commission in trade union row