Brussels 25 – 29 April 2005
Brussels Monitor
Biotechnology
GMOs
The EU has approved a detection method for BT-10 maize provided by biotech company Syngenta.
Companies exporting corn gluten feed to the EU from the US will now be able to use the detection
method in order to show that their exports are free of the unauthorized BT-10 maize.
The certificate system was introduced by the EU on 18 April 2004 after it discovered that
unauthorized BT-10 maize seeds have been sold in the US for four years, some of which were
contained in corn gluten feed imported into the EU.
Company
Corporate Governance
The Commission has set up an expert advisory group to provide detailed technical advice on
preparing corporate governance and company law measures. It will consist of twenty nongovernment experts coming from various professional backgrounds (issuers, investors, employees’
representatives, academics, regulated professions, etc.) The group is complementary to the
“European Forum for Corporate Governance” set up in October 2004 to study the best practices in
the convergence of corporate governance in Europe.
Competition
Article 82 - Microsoft
Microsoft has got into another battle with the Commission over the implementation of its antitrust
ruling issued last year. The ruling obliges Microsoft to share information contained in the
communication protocols for its Windows operating system. This would allow other companies to
create server software that works smoothly with Windows-driven computers.
The Commission has told Microsoft that it may charge royalties for sharing the protocols only insofar
as the information is valuable, innovative and protected by intellectual property rights and has asked
Microsoft to provide evidence to that effect. The Commission's approach might oblige Microsoft to
make some of its protocols available free of charge as only a few of its patents are registered in the
EU.
The long running dispute between the Commission and Microsoft over the scope and terms of the
monitoring trustee's mandate now appears to have been largely resolved. Meanwhile, the
Commission has made it clear that it expects Microsoft to comply fully with the Commission's
decision without further delay. If it fails to do so Microsoft risks having a daily fine imposed on it of
up to 5% of its average daily turnover – a fine of about €1.4 million per day.
For further information please contact the Brussels office:
Martin Baker, Peter Willis, Marco Hartmann-Rüppel, Franziska Wagner or Andrea Iber on +32 2 289 6060
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Enlargement
Accession of Bulgaria and Romania
Bulgaria and Romania signed an Accession Treaty with the EU on 25 April. The Treaty sets out the
terms of Bulgaria’s and Romania’s accession and paves the way for the countries’ to join the EU in
January 2007. Bulgaria and Romania will now have to implement the undertakings agreed on in the
negotiation process and ratify the Treaty by 2007. If either country fails to implement its
undertakings fully, accession might be delayed until 2008. The text of the Accession Treaty is
expected to be published in the near future.
Internal Market
REACH
First results of impact studies of the proposed new EC chemicals legislation (REACH), which were
commissioned by industry within the framework of arrangements agreed with the Commission, have
been presented to the Commission. These studies look at the impact on supply chains on the basis
of data supplied by individual firms in the chemicals, automobile, flexible packaging and inorganic
and electronics sector.
The key findings of the studies were:
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There is limited evidence that higher volume substances are vulnerable to withdrawal
following the REACH registration requirements. However, lower volume substances under
100 tonnes are most vulnerable to being made less or non profitable by the REACH
requirements.
There is limited evidence that downstream users will be faced with a withdrawal of
substances of greatest technical importance to them. However, withdrawal of some
products for economical reasons due to REACH is likely to occur.
SMEs can be particularly affected by REACH having regard to their more limited financial
capacity and lower market power in terms of passing on costs.
A copy of the provisional version of the study is at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/reach/docs/reach/kpmg_summary.pdf
Trade
Chinese Textiles
The Commission has launched a safeguard investigation into the surge of imports as a result of the
ending at the beginning of this year of the WTO Textiles Agreement which had imposed a series of
quotas. This investigation will not of itself lead to the imposition of quotas by the EU. However, if
the Commission decides to open a formal consultation exercise with the PRC then imports will be
frozen at last year's level.
US Byrd Amendment
European Union Foreign Ministers have approved sanctions on a range of US products imported
into Europe in a long running dispute over the US Byrd Amendment. Under the Byrd Amendment,
anti-dumping and countervailing duties are distributed to the domestic companies that had
requested or supported the imposition of those duties. The legislation was ruled illegal by the WTO
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in January 2003 and should have been repealed by December 2003. The sanctions take the form
of additional duties of 15% imposed on a wide range of products including paper, farming, textiles
and machinery and apply from 1 May 2005.