Translation of "Nombre d'onde selon l'axe " (French → English) :

20. Takes note of the Ombudsman's concerns about the relatively high number of unsatisfactory replies by the European Commission to his critical remarks (10 out of 32 replies); shares the Ombudsman's view that there is still major work to be done in persuading officials that a defensive approach to the Ombudsman represents a missed opportunity for their institutions and risks damaging the image of the Union as a whole; calls for the radical improvement of the answering process, including reducing the time taken in generating responses (especially in time-sensitive cases), and producing solution-oriented rather than defensive answers; stresses that European ...[+++] citizens have a right to good administration under the Charter of Fundamental Rights;

4. Notes with concern energy nationalism among the key energy players and increasingly politicised energy relations between the oil exporting and importing countries, including a higher risk of tensions and conflicts; strongly supports the Commission’s proposal that the EU should engage in close dialogue with key oil suppliers such as Norway, OPEC and Russia, with a view to reinforcing energy interdependence and energy security for the whole of the EU, with a particular focus on greater efficiency, equal market access, non-discrimination and transparency; commends the Commission on its work on intensifying energy dialogues, resulting in particular in a number of memora ...[+++]nda of understanding with the eastern neighbours and Central Asian countries, and looks forward to more progress with southern partners; stresses that energy dialogues should in no way take place at the expense of frank and results-oriented dialogues on human rights; is disappointed by the lack of active and transparent monitoring of the energy sector, especially the oil and gas sectors, as regards competition in processing, production and sale and research activities; requests the Commission to present proposals embodying a more cohesive and comprehensive strategy in this regard and embracing a successful foreign energy policy;

7. Emphasises the explicit remark in the Barcelona conclusions that " the Lisbon goals can only be brought about by balanced efforts on both the economic and social fronts", and the European Council's commitment to proposals and activities of the European Commission that fit into the Social Agenda and that are mentioned in that chapter of the conclusions; stresses that for a successful knowledge economy, but also for a service economy and many industrial sectors human resources are crucial; thus not only an employment strategy focused on the number of jobs, ...[+++]but a qualitative strategy focused on improving the conditions and the social environment are imperative to stimulate a motivated and creative workforce;

The Commission is therefore proposing a three-pronged revision of the guidelines for the trans-European network: concentrating efforts on developing the network as already planned, by targeting investment to reduce bottlenecks, completing the list of 14 priority projects with a limited number of new projects, and raising the minimum level of Community support from 10 to 20% for cross-border rail projects crossing natural barriers and other projects at the frontiers of the candidate countries.

In spite of this methodological caveat, the first Observatory's report underlines a number of useful elements, namely as regards: - an indication to the existence of different problems, attitudes and behaviour within the SME sector, justifying the adoption of differentiated policy approaches aiming at micro, small and medium enterprises; - a differentiated contribution of SMEs to employment as only micro firms have ...[+++] been able to secure some net job creation in 1991-1992, these years being characterised by an important reduction in the number of both medium-sized and large enterprises as well as in their employment levels; - the importance to provide appropriate information and counselling, as well as adequate formation to newly created enterprises; - the Community's role in assisting cooperation and transnational business relationships, to stimulate the potential for cooperation, and to encourage those enterprises who are still apprehensive of cooperation; - the differences in financial problems, depending on the type of enterprise considered (size and sector) and the requirement to be met (creation, expansion, liquidity position or transfer); - the importance of the Community's efforts to provide assistance to enterprises and to promote economic development through transborder and transnational cooperation, namely by means of the INTERREG initiative and the intervention of Structural Funds; - the need of further improving the absorption of Community's funds by SMEs, alleviating financial burdens and helping develop financial institutions geared to the needs of SMEs, and assisting the development of managerial resources in less favoured regions.

On this basis, the Commission is asking the Twelve to obtain firm commitments from their national administrations to two main approaches : - the provision of geographical coverage such that 80 % of their customers can have access to the digital network; - the provision by 1993 of accesses to the network corresponding to a "critical mass" of 5 % of the number of main subscriber lines in 1983.