1. Welcomes the European Community's general practice of incorporating human rights and democracy clauses—the so-called 'essential element' and 'non-execution' clauses—in its international agreements since 1992, but at the same time notes the selective manner in which such clauses are implemented in some cases;

So, with the greatest respect, and in full understanding of Parliament’s overall position, I consider that the amendments put forward on comitology and on the sunset clause are neither necessary nor appropriate in the context of this proposal.

All agreements concluded must make provision not only for democracy and human rights clauses, but also for the procedure to be adopted for suspending the agreement if these clauses are breached.

In particular, the Commission charged the different Member States (a) with having infringed the principles relating to the division of external powers between the Community and the Member States (a charge not made, however, against the United Kingdom), (b) with having infringed the provisions of the EC Treaty on the right of establishment by inserting in the agreements a "nationality clause", which in practice allows each party to refuse the rights provided for in the agreements themselves to air carriers designated by the other contr ...[+++]acting State but not owned or controlled by nationals of that State and (c), in the event of the provisions that are contrary to Community law being held to predate the entry into force of the Treaty, with having failed to do everything possible to render those provisions fully compatible with the Community legislation (a charge not made against the United Kingdom).

Its cornerstone is the "internal market clause" which will enable on-line providers to supply services throughout the Union based on the rules of the Member State where they are established.

The other conditions imposed by the Commission are as follows: - no amendment may be made to the plan without the Commission's prior agreement; - Crédit Lyonnais will be permitted to repurchase hived-off industrial and commercial assets (compare the Usinor-Sacilor case) only at the price at which the assets were transferred to Consortium de Réalisations (CDR - see background below) or at the market price if that is higher than the price at which the assets were transferred to CDR; an overall limit of FF 5 billion has been set on such repurchases; - a clearer separation will have to be made between CDR and Crédit Lyonnais as regards th ...[+++]eir managers, their administration and the system of controlling and supervising the management of the hiving-off mechanism; steps must also be taken to ensure that the committees responsible for managing the hived-off companies remain independent of Crédit Lyonnais and that the bank has no share in the proceeds of CDR's sales; - Crédit Lyonnais will have to use the proceeds of sales to restructure non-performing assets and activities, thereby preventing it from reinvesting those proceeds in the repurchase of industrial or financial holdings; - Société de Participation Banque/Industries (SPBI - see background below) will receive not only the proceeds of the privatization of Crédit Lyonnais but also a substantial share of the bank's profits (in accordance with the "better fortunes" clause).