'Euro MP' is the weekly newsletter of the largest political group in the European Parliament, the 217-strong Socialists led by Labour MEP Pauline Green. For further information you may contact the Socialist Group spokesman Tony Robinson tel +32.3. 284 3060 - fax +32.3. 284 9026 e-mail TRobinson@eurosocialist.be.btmail.com

12 October 1998

• PEACE MAN: Major international peace prize for SDLP leader John Hume
• MINISTERS MEET MEPs: Talks with French, Finnish and Austrian ministers
• ALL CHANGE: Agenda 2000 reforms take centre-stage
• CORK FLOATS FUNDING IDEAS: Conference on future of the structural funds
• YOUNGEST EURO MP: New Swedish MEP meets media
• BIOTECH - A NEW START: European conference on patenting of biotech inventions OPENING UP:
• Roundtable with national MPs on openness and democratic control
• FRAUD AND THE EURO: Legal committee to give opinion on fighting counterfeiters BEYOND
• REFUGEE STATUS: Hearing and debate on protection measures
• RACE WATCH: Report on the Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia
• FUNDING THE EU: Commissioner in talks with budgets committee
• BACK TO THE FUTURE: Fresh debate on the EU's prospects
• THE RECKONING: Press conference on Austrian
• Presidency SAKHAROV PRIZE: Foreign affairs committee draws up shortlist
• TICKER TALK: Heart checks in EP in Euro health week APE TRADE, GMOs AND
• TURBANS: Issues before the petitions committee

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Major Award for SDLP leader Hume
PEACE MAN

The 'outstanding role' of SDLP leader John Hume in securing Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace agreement is to be recognised this week when he is awarded a major international peace price in Brussels.

The International Peace Bureau is to award its annual Sean MacBride Peace Prize to Mr Hume at a ceremony in the European Parliament at 12h30 on Tuesday 13 October.

Previous winners of the prize include Mordechai Vanunu of Israel, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia and Mayor of Tuzla, Selim Beslagie.

A statement by the International Peace Bureau says: 'John Hume is widely recognised to have played an outstanding role in breaking the political stalemate in Ulster, paving the way for this year's historic Good Friday agreement.

'At a time when the peace process continues to be under threat, the IPB believes it is appropriate to honour publicly a politician who has displayed sustained courage and leadership during these difficult years of the Troubles.' The IPB, founded in 1892, represents 170 organisations from more than 40 countries. Its priority issues are the abolition of nuclear weapons, prevention and resolution of conflicts, international humanitarian law and peace culture.

The IPB's website is at http://www.ipb.org

+ John Hume is to host a meeting of the Socialist Group's political leadership in Derry on 9 and 10 November. Group leader Pauline Green, her deputies and other members of the Group bureau are to hold talks with senior political figures in Northern Ireland on the EU's contribution in support of the peace process.

MINISTERS MEET MEPs

French finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to meet the EP's all-party economic and monetary affairs committee at 09h00 on 13 October.

Finnish administrative affairs minister Jouni Backman is to make a statement on the structural funds in Finland to the regional policy committee at 17h30 on Monday 12 October.

Austrian EU affairs minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner will be before the institutional affairs committee at 11h00 on Tuesday 13 October for discussions on institutional developments within the Union.

Agenda 2000 takes centre-stage ALL CHANGE

The Socialist Group strategy on the Agenda 2000 reforms aimed at preparing for EU enlargement will be set out at a news conference and press reception on Wednesday 4 November at 17h30.

Group leader Pauline Green and her deputy Klaus Haensch, who has been in charge of Group policy development on Agenda 2000, will meet correspondents in the EP's press room on the ground floor of the Leopold building.

Journalists are invited to continue the discussion informally over a drink after the news conference.

Agenda 2000 questions are now taking centre-stage in EP business with major discussions planned in several committees this week.

The budget committee has 14 separate Agenda 2000 items on its business this week including details of farm policy reform, social and regional policy reform and support for countries in the run-up to their EU membership.

The committee, chaired by German social democrat Detlev Samland, on which the Socialist Group spokesman is British Labour MEP Terry Wynn, meets from 15h00 on Monday 12 October.

Other committees dealing with Agenda 2000 this week include regional affairs, environment, culture and civil liberties.

CORK FLOATS FUNDING IDEAS
Irish Labour leader Ruairi Quinn is to be a keynote speaker at a conference on the future of the EU's structural funds in Cork on 16 October.

The conference, which opens at 10h00 in Fitzpatrick's Hotel, Tivoli, is organised by the Socialist Group and the Party of European Socialists along with the Irish Labour Party.

Mr Quinn's opening address will be on 'The Role of Structural Funds in Ireland's Recent Economic Miracle'.

Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies will speak on the future of the structural funds in a session chaired by Brendan Keenan, group business editor of Independent Newspapers. Other speakers will include Dr John Fitzgerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute and Socialist Group spokeswoman on the EU regional fund, Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy.

Portuguese minister of planning and public works, Joao Cravinho will be the principal speaker in an afternoon session, chaired by Irish Labour MEP Bernie Malone, on 'Structural Funds and Social Exclusion'.
Other speakers will include Perttu Vartiainen, principal of the University of Joensuu, Finland, John McDonnell, General Secretary of the Irish trade union SIPTU and Spanish Euro MP Ludivina Garcia Arias.

YOUNGEST EURO MP

Twenty-five-year-old Veronica Palm -- who is set to become the youngest member of the European Parliament - will meet journalists in the EP's Socialist Press Room at 10h00 on Tuesday 13 October.

She will be accompanied by her colleague Yvonne Sandberg Friis. The two join the Socialist Group to replace Euro MPs newly-elected to the national parliament, Tommy Waidelich and Birgitta Ahlqvist.

The Socialist Press Room is room 4H146 on the fourth floor of section H of the EP's Brussels buildings.

BIOTECH - A NEW START
A one-day conference on the patentability of biotech inventions is to take place from 09h30 on Tuesday 13 October at the Borschette Conference Centre, Brussels.

German MEP Willi Rothley, vice-chairman of the legal affairs committee and an acknowledged expert on the issue, will lead the conference bringing together industry representatives, regulators, trades unionists, academics and politicians.

Commissioners Edith Cresson and Mario Monti are to attend the closing session of the talks.

Three roundtable discussions are planned during the conference - 'Prospects opened up by the new legal framework'; 'Research, university, industry: challenges and conditions required for perfect co-ordination'; and 'Moving towards world law.'

OPENING UP

National MPs are to join Euro MPs in Brussels on Monday 12 October for roundtable talks on openness and democratic control in the EU.

Swedish social democrat Maj-Lis Loow - who is to draw up an EP report on the issue - will lead the discussion. The roundtable opens at 15h00.

FRAUD AND THE EURO

A report on measures to fight fraud in the EU and protect the euro from counterfeiters is to be adopted by the civil liberties committee on Monday 26 October.

The report, by German social democrat Gerhard Schmid, is for debate at the first November session of the EP.

The all-party legal affairs committee is this week to appoint a member to report on legal aspects of EU action.

+ The all-party media committee is to discuss a public information strategy for the euro at its meeting on Tuesday 13 October.

BEYOND REFUGEE STATUS
Moves to align protection measures in the 15 EU countries, over and above refugee status, are to be the focus of debate at the civil liberties committee on 12 and 13 October.

The committee will take evidence from experts from 15h30 to 17h30 on Monday 12 October before discussing a working document the following day at 09h30.

French Socialist Michele Lindeperg is to draw up a report for the EP. Experts to take part in the hearings include Johannes van der Klauw of the UN High Commission for Refugees, Christopher Hein of the Italian Council for Refugees and Roel Fernhout of the Catholic University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

The committee is chaired by Dutch Labour MEP Hedy d'Ancona. The Socialist Group spokesman on civil liberties is German MEP Martin Schulz.

RACE WATCH

A report on the Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia is to be adopted by a committee of Euro MPs this week.

Issues dealt with in the report by British Labour MEP Glyn Ford include co-operation with the Council of Europe. The vote is to take place on Monday 12 October.

FUNDING THE EU
Budget commissioner Erkki Liikanen is to meet the all-party budgets committee at 09h15 on Tuesday 13 October for talks on the EU's own resources. Socialist Jutta Haug is to draw up a report for Parliament on the issue.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

The future of the EU will be the subject of a key vote in the EP on Monday 12 October.
The institutional affairs committee is to vote at 16h30 on a motion by its chairman, Italian Socialist Biagio de Giovanni, setting the scene for the informal EU summit in Poertschach, Austria, on 24 and 25 October.
Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima is to take part in a debate on the future of the EU during the EP's second October session in Strasbourg.
Socialist participants in the EU Summit are to meet in Poertschach on 24 October, immediately before the opening of the summit.

THE RECKONING

Austria's Socialist Euro MPs, headed by Socialist Group deputy leader Hannes Swoboda, will give a press conference at 10h30 on Wednesday 14 October to assess the performance of the Austrian Presidency.
They are to set out targets for the Presidency to achieve in the closing months of its term of office.

SAKHAROV PRIZE

The all-party foreign affairs committee is to vote this week on the shortlist of candidates for the European Parliament's annual Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.

The vote will take place at 09h30 on Tuesday 13 October. Political group leaders will decide on the winner at a meeting of the EP's Conference of Presidents. The award is to be made during the EP's December session in Strasbourg.

The Socialist Group candidate for the prize is Akin Birdal, a Turkish human rights campaigner seriously wounded earlier this year in an assassination attempt.

Previous winners of the prize have included Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi.

TICKER TALK

Volunteer Euro MPs are to have their tickers tested in a Euro health week at the EP this month.

A public hearing on the future of health policy in the EU is to be held on Wednesday 28 October. Health-linked events are planned from 26 to 30 October including screening for cardiovascular health. A press conference on the results of the screening is to take place on Thursday 29 October.

Labour MEP Clive Needle is to prepare a report on health policy for the all-party public health committee.

Speakers at the public hearing will include representatives of the World Health Organisation, EU institutions, academics, representatives of health ministries from EU and enlargement countries as well as NGOs and patients' representatives.

Says Mr Needle: 'The hearing will not only be a platform for reflection on the development of EU health programmes and policies in the past and its present status, but it will also be an opportunity to look at their future direction and study the implications of article 152 of the Amsterdam Treaty.'

Exhibitions by the European Public Health Alliance and the European Network of Health Promotion Agencies are to be staged at the EP. A major report on dental health in the EU is to be launched at a reception on Tuesday 27 October. A seminar on nutrition and health is planned for Thursday 29 October.

APE TRADE, GMOs AND TURBANS

A petition signed by 16,600 people - calling for a ban on trade in primates - is among 43 separate concerns of EU citizens to be referred to the all-party petitions committee this week.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection will submit the petition.

French citizens Sebastien Arribas and Pia San Marco are petitioning on the appearance of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) on the EU market.

The British Sikh Federation is to submit a 12,110-signature petition on the consequences for the Sikh community of EU rules on protective equipment at work.

Another 10,000 signatories are backing Briton Anni Marjoram in a petition from the Committee for Diversity and Pluralism on newspaper and magazine distribution in the UK.

The committee meets from 15h00 on Monday 12 October. Contacts include the committee's British Labour vice-chairman Eddy Newman and Socialist Group spokeswoman Barbara Schmidbauer of the German SPD.

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