Today's Date:

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NICE EUROPEAN COUNCIL

THE PRESIDENT - Germany has clearly reaffirmed the commitment made in Rambouillet, i.e. its resolve to do all it can to help the French Presidency in its aim of getting a substantial, clear result. We both restated our view that we wouldn't accept a mediocre result which wouldn't allow us to manage the enlarged Europe of tomorrow, that we wanted a meaningful result. (...)

ENLARGEMENT

We also talked about the enlargement, which is a very important issue for our two countries. During its Presidency, France has endeavoured to make as much headway as possible in the negotiations, but, and in this we have our German partner's wholehearted agreement, to do so both responsibly and sensibly, i.e. on a basis of respect for the commitments made in Helsinki: opening the door on 1 January 2003, but accepting countries which have made the necessary efforts. (...)

FOOD SAFETY/MARITIME SAFETY

We discussed many other European issues, and, of course, as everyone will understand, those related to food safety and maritime safety.

On the former, we affirmed our resolve both to get the European Food Safety Agency up and running as soon as possible and to make progress in harmonizing EU States' food safety rules.

As regards maritime safety, we agreed to implement every measure which obtains the political backing of the Fifteen, at once, without delay, in accordance, of course, with the legal rules, but at once, without delay, in order as quickly as possible to be in a position to have an effective law of the sea. (…)

CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

THE PRIME MINISTER - We both emphasized the importance of the Hague Conference. We are all fully aware that the more information, the more analyses and reports we get, the more alarmist these analyses and reports are about what will happen, in particular as regards global warming, with what may be absolutely enormous consequences. And what strikes us is that whereas political, historical catastrophes, huge economic policy errors and social problems, may, at the end of the day, fade away with time, here we're looking at developments of an irreversible kind. I.e., if we don't take decisions in time, it won't be possible to turn the clock back and humanity will have to face the consequences.

We have the impression that one of our major partners isn't acutely aware enough of these issues, so we think that, in The Hague, the European Union must play a driving role and, in this respect, after our discussions, we can say that both of us, Germany and France, would like the Hague conference to be a success.

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NUCLEAR WASTE

The Chancellor raised the issue of nuclear waste.

We know the problems which exist. We, industry and governments, are bound by reciprocal commitments as regards the treatment of spent fuel, returning of processed nuclear waste, and it's on the basis of those commitments and with a concern for balance and reciprocity that we must find solutions. Admittedly, for the past three years, returns haven't been possible; throughout this period, the French party has taken an understanding attitude to the German party's problems and now that solutions may have been found to some questions, but also that some urgent situations are emerging on the German side, our objective, as the Chancellor said, is to find a balanced and swift solution and so, to that end, a working group, led by Franz Steinmeier and Christian Pierret has been established to look carefully, let's say, at all the constraints which exist, so that we can settle this problem together on a reciprocal and definitive basis.

PATENTS

(…) W also discussed in our meeting this morning the issue of patentability, in particular that of the non-patentability of the human genome. We don't want to hold back scientific progress, but we adhere to minimum - i.e. maximum, if I may say so - and essential ethical rules and, from this point of view, the current directive as it stands isn't totally satisfactory. We discussed taking a new look at this directive. (…)./.