TRETY OF AMSTERDAM
SECTION II
THE UNION AND THE CITIZEN
CHAPTER 6. PUBLIC HEALTH
Amend Article 129 of the TEC
1. A high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition
and implementation of all Community policies and activities.
Community action, which shall complement national policies, shall be directed towards improving public health, preventing human illness and diseases, and obviating sources of danger to human health. Such action shall cover the fight against the major health scourges, by promoting research into their causes, their transmission and their prevention, as well as health information and education.
The Community shall complement the Member States' action in reducing drugs related health damage, including information and prevention.
2. The Community shall encourage cooperation between the Member States in the areas referred to in this Article and, if necessary, lend support to their action. Member States shall, in liaison with the Commission, coordinate among themselves their policies and programmes in the areas referred to in paragraph 1. The Commission may, in close contact with the Member States, take any useful initiative to promote such coordination.
3. The Community and the Member States shall foster cooperation with third countries and the competent international organizations in the sphere of public health.
4. The Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189b, after consulting the Social and Economic Committee and the Committee of the Regions shall contribute to the achievement of the objectives referred to in this Article through adopting:
(a) measures setting high standards of quality and safety of organs and substances of human origin, blood and blood derivatives; these measures shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or introducing more stringent protective measures;
(b) by way of derogation from Article 43, measures in the veterinary and phytosanitary fields which have as their direct objective the protection of public health;
(c) incentive measures designed to protect and improve human health, excluding any harmonization of the laws and regulations of the Member States.
The Council, acting by a qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission, may also adopt recommendations for the purposes set out in this Article.
5. Community action in the field of public health shall fully respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the organization and delivery of health services and medical care. In particular, measures referred to in paragraph 4(a) shall not affect national provisions on the donation or medical use of organs and blood.
CHAPTER 7. CONSUMER PROTECTION
Amend Article 129a in the TEC
1. In order to promote the interests of consumers and to ensure a high level of
consumer protection, the Community shall contribute to protecting the health,
safety and economic interests of consumers, as well as to promoting their right
to information, education and to organize themselves in order to safeguard their
interests.
2. Consumer protection requirements shall be taken into account in defining and implementing other Community policies and activities.
3. The Community shall contribute to the attainment of the objectives referred to in paragraph 1 through:
(a) measures adopted pursuant to article 100a in the context of the completion of the internal market;
(b) measures which support, supplement and monitor the policy pursued by the Member States.
4. The Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189b and after consulting the Economic and Social Committee, shall adopt the measures referred to in paragraph 3(b).
5. Measures adopted pursuant to paragraph 4 shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or introducing more stringent protective measures. Such measures must be compatible with this Treaty. The Commission shall be notified of them.
CHAPTER 8. OTHER COMMUNITY POLICIES
(a) Citizenship of the Union
Amend Article 8 of the TEC
1. Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person
holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the
Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship.
Add a new third subparagraph to Article 8d of the TEC
Every citizen of the Union may write to any of the institutions
or bodies referred to in this Article or in Article 4 in one of the languages mentioned in
Article 248footnote 11 (1) and have an answer in the same language.
New paragraph in the Preamble to the TEC
Determined to promote the development of the highest possible
level of knowledge for their peoples through a wide access to education and its continuous
updating.
(b) Culture
Amend Article 128(4) of the TEC
The Community shall take cultural aspects into account in its
action under other provisions of this Treaty, in particular in order to respect and to promote
the diversity of its cultures.
(c) Sport
Declaration to the Final Act on sport
The Conference emphasizes the social significance of sport, in
particular its role in forging identity and bringing people together. The Conference therefore
calls on the bodies of the European Union to listen to sports associations when important
questions affecting sport are at issue. In this connection, special consideration should be
given to the particular characteristics of amateur sport.
(d) Countering fraud affecting the financial interests of the
Community
Amend Article 209a of the TEC
1. The Community and the Member States shall counter fraud and any other illegal
activities affecting the financial interests of the Community through measures
to be taken in accordance with this Article, which shall act as a deterrent and
be such as to afford effective protection in the Member States.
2. Member States shall take the same measures to counter fraud affecting the financial interests of the Community as they take to counter fraud affecting their own financial interests.
3. Without prejudice to other provisions of this Treaty, the Member States shall coordinate their action aimed at protecting the financial interests of the Community against fraud. To this end they shall organize, together with the Commission, close and regular cooperation between the competent authorities.
4. The Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189b, after consulting the Court of Auditors, shall adopt the necessary measures in the fields of the prevention of and fight against fraud affecting the financial interests of the Community with a view to affording effective and equivalent protection in the Member States. These measures shall not concern the application of national criminal law and the national administration of justice.
5. The Commission, in cooperation with Member States, shall each year submit to the Council and to the European Parliament a report on the measures taken for the implementation of this Article.
(e) Strengthening customs cooperation
New Article in the TEC
Within the scope of application of this Treaty, the Council,
acting in accordance with theprocedure referred to in Article 189b, shall take measures in
order to strengthen customs cooperation between Member States and between the latter and the
Commission. These measures shall not concern the application of national criminal
law and the national administration of justice.
(f) Outermost regions
Amend Article 227(2)
2. The provisions of the Treaty establishing the European
Community shall apply to the French overseas departments, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary
Islands.
However, taking account of the structural social and economic
situation of the French overseas departments, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands,
which is compounded by their remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography
and climate, economic dependence on a few products, the permanence and combination of
which severely restrain their development, the Council, acting by a qualified majority on
a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament, shall
adopt specific measures aimed, in particular, at laying down the conditions of
application of the present Treaty to those regions, including common policies.
The Council shall, when adopting the relevant measures referred
to in the previous subparagraph, take into account areas such as customs and trade
policies, fiscal policy, free zones, agriculture and fisheries policies, conditions for supply
of raw materials and essential consumer goods, State aids and conditions of access to structural
funds and to horizontal Community programmes.
The Council shall adopt the measures referred to in the second
subparagraph taking into account the special characteristics and constraints of the
outermost regions without undermining the integrity and the coherence of the Community
legal order, including the internal market and common policies.
(g) Island regions
Amend Article 130a, second paragraph
In particular, the Community shall aim at reducing disparities
between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the
least favoured regions or islands, including rural areas.
Declaration to the Final Act on island regions
The Conference recognizes that island regions suffer from
structural handicaps linked to their island status, the permanence of which impairs their
economic and social development.
The Conference accordingly acknowledges that Community
legislation must take account of these handicaps and that specific measures may be taken, where
justified, in favour of these regions in order to integrate them better into the internal
market on fair conditions.
(h) Overseas countries and territories
Declaration to the Final Act
on the Overseas Countries and Territories
The Conference recognizes that the special arrangements for the
association of the OCTs under Part Four of the Treaty establishing the European Community
were designed for countries and territories that were numerous, covered vast areas
and had large populations. The arrangements have changed little since 1957.
The Conference notes that there are today only 20 OCTs and that
they are extremely scattered island territories with a total population of
approximately 900,000. Moreover, most OCT lag far behind in structural terms, a fact linked to
their particularly severe geographical and economic handicaps. In these circumstances, the
special arrangements for association as they were conceived in 1957 can no longer deal
effectively with the challenges of OCT development.
The Conference solemnly restates that the purpose of association
is to promote the economic and social development of the countries and territories
and to establish close economic relations between them and the Community as a whole.
The Conference invites the Council, acting in accordance with the
provisions of Article 136 of the TEC, to review the association arrangements by
February 2000, with the fourfold objective of:
- promoting the economic and social development of the OCTs more
effectively;
- developing economic relations between the OCTs and the European
Union;
- taking greater account of the diversity and specific
characteristics of the individual OCTs, including aspects relating to freedom of establishment;
- ensuring that the effectiveness of the financial instrument is
improved.
(i) Services of general economic interest
New Article 7d
Without prejudice to Articles 77, 90 and 92, and given the place
occupied by services of general economic interest in the shared values of the Union as
well as their role in promoting social and territorial cohesion, the Community and the
Member States, each within their respective powers and within the scope of
application of this Treaty, shall take care that such services operate on the basis of principles and
conditions which enable them to fulfil their missions.
Declaration to the Final Act
The provisions of Article 7d on public services shall be
implemented with full respect for the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice, inter alia as regards
the principles of equality of treatment, quality and continuity of such services.
(j) Public Service Broadcasting
Protocol to the TEC
THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES
CONSIDERING that the system of public broadcasting in the Member
States is directly related to the democratic, social and cultural needs of each
society and to the need to preserve media pluralism
HAVE AGREED upon the following interpretative provisions, which
shall be annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community:
The provisions of this Treaty shall be without prejudice to the
competence of Member States to provide for the funding of public service broadcasting
in so far as such funding is granted to broadcasting organizations for the fulfilment of the
public service remit as conferred, defined and organized by each Member State, and that
such funding does not affect trading conditions and competition in the Community to an
extent which would be contrary to the common interest, while the realization of the
remit of that public service shall be taken into account.
(k) Public credit institutions in Germany
Declaration to the Final Act
The Conference notes the Commission's opinion to the effect that
the Community's existing competition rules allow services of general economic
interest provided by public credit institutions existing in Germany and the facilities
granted to them to compensate for the costs connected with such services to be taken into account
in full. In this context, the way in which Germany enables local authorities to carry out their
task of making available in their regions a comprehensive and efficient financial
infrastructure is a matter for the organization of that Member State. Such facilities may not
adversely affect the conditions of competition to an extent beyond that required in order to
perform these particular tasks and which is contrary to the interests of the Community.
(l) Voluntary service activities
Declaration to the Final Act
The Conference recognizes the important contribution made by
voluntary service activities to developing social solidarity.
The Community will encourage the European dimension of voluntary
organizations with particular emphasis on the exchange of information and
experiences as well as on the participation of the young and the elderly in voluntary work.
(m) Animal welfare
Protocol to the TEC
THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES
DESIRING to ensure improved protection and respect for the
welfare of animals as sentient beings
HAVE AGREED upon the following provision which shall be annexed
to the Treaty establishing the European Community:
In formulating and implementing the Community's agriculture,
transport, internal market and research policies, the Community and the Member States shall
pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting the legislative
or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States relating in
particular to religious rites, cultural traditions and regional heritage.
(n) Trans-European networks
Amend third indent of Article 129c(1) of the TEC
In order to achieve the objectives referred to in Article 129b,
the Community:
- may support projects of common interest supported by Member
States, which are identified in the framework of guidelines referred to ...(rest
unchanged).
(o) Statistics
New Article 213a in the TEC
1. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 5 of the
Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central
Bank, the Council, acting in accordance with Article 189b, shall adopt measures for the
production of statistics where necessary for the performance of the activities of the Community.
2. The production of Community statistics shall conform to
impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness and
statistical confidentiality; it shall not entail excessive burdens on economic operators.