Since no products, other than milk and milk based products as well as hides prepared for use for leather production only, derived from bovine animals born or reared within the United Kingdom before 1 August 1996 may be placed on the market, a scheme providing for the destruction of those animals at the end of their productive life in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 should be considered as offering equivalent safeguards to the measures laid down in Articles 12 and 13 of Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 on the basis of the SSC opinion of 11 January 2002.

3. Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 and 2, the hides of the animals referred to therein may be used for leather production, in compliance with Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 and with Article 4(1) and Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 878/2004.

Therefore it should be possible to use hides of those animals for leather production.

Recent activity of the OSCE has proliferated and includes supervision of general elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina; objecting to media restrictions in Slovakia; drafting laws for local elections and local observers and consultation on penal codes and procedure as well as election missions to Azerbaijan, Latvia and Georgia; crisis management in Albania; regular reports to the UN on the irrepressible Milosevic and Serb intervention in Kosovo; monitors on the return of Serb refugees to Croatia; attempts to resolve inter-ethnic disput ...[+++]es in Moldavia; media watches in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria; environmental watches in Uzbekistan; organizing training programs for elections for officials in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; and workshops for judges from Moscow teaching international legal European standards.

Röhm GmbH, Darmstadt und Chemische Fabrik Stockhausen, Krefeld, both belonging to the German VEBA group of companies and Ciba-Geigy AG, Basel, intend to merge all their worldwide activities in special dyestuffs and chemicals used for leather and pelt production and processing (DCLP[1] - Business), into the newly created, jointly controlled 50 % : 50 %-joint venture TFL Ledertechnik GmbH Co. KG, Darmstadt.

- 4 - SEVERAL ACP STATES Assistance to ACP/CEE 5th EDF 1 416 000 ECU business organizations set up Grant to improve production and export marketing of commodities The aim of the project is to help APROMA (Association des Produits a Marche) respond to the requests for assistance it received from ACP companies or organizations involved in developing export sales of "soft" commodities (agricultural and forestry products) incuding coffee, cocoa, oils and fats, timber, hides and skins. Recognizing that success in this field does not depend ...[+++] only on international agreements (e.g. the International Coffee and Cocoa Agreements), but also on commercial facilities and skills, APROMA is keen to develop a support programme over three years to provide : - training for ACP managers and administrators from marketing organizations and companies ; - selective up-to-date information to serve as a basis for commercial strategy and trade negotiations ; - specialist coordination in areas relating to the activities of ACP marketing organizations and companies and their dealings with European professionals and colleagues ; - technical assistance to ACP marketing and export bodies to help them improve their organization and operational resources.