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“If trade is to be a tool for development, we need to ensure that it is compatible<br />

with sensitive management of the environment and social development. SIAs<br />

are an essential means to help us achieve these challenges.” 45<br />

Already in April 2002 a study prepared by order of the WWF on the Sustainable<br />

Impact Assessment EU/MERCOSUR judged that:<br />

“In accordance with its announced policy, the Commission is preparing to<br />

undertake a sustainability assessment of the EU/MERCOSUR negotiations.<br />

That is a welcome development and one that may help to identify some of the<br />

missing elements of the current agenda. In principle, however, a sustainability<br />

assessment is not designed to rectify a negotiating agenda that is inadequate,<br />

in particular when its shortcoming concern primarily political issues and<br />

missed opportunities. It is difficult to see what a sustainability assessment can<br />

contribute to negotiations that have already been under way for three years<br />

under an agenda that takes little or no account of the issues surrounding<br />

sustainability.” 46<br />

During the course of 2003 the Eurostat-scandal became publicly known, with<br />

Planistat Luxembourg at its center: Planistat had created a bank account for presumed<br />

irregular reserves (the investigations of the public prosecutor are still running)<br />

under the self-explanatory name “Euro-Diff”, so that the EU-Commission saw itself<br />

obligated to cancel all contracts with Planistat, which included the SIA on EU-Chile/<br />

MERCOSUR. 47<br />

One of the first consequences of this was that the Planistat-website<br />

(http://www.planistat.com) published a memorandum:<br />

“Suite à une décision de la Commission Européenne, ce site n’est plus mis à<br />

jour depuis le 10 Juillet 2003.<br />

Following a decision of the European Commission, this website was not updated<br />

since the 10th of July 2003.<br />

De acuerdo a una decisión de la Comisión Europea, esta página web no ha<br />

sido actualizada desde el 10 de julio de 2003”,<br />

before the website was completely removed from the web, - and the staff was<br />

45 http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/sia/pr060203_en.htm.<br />

46 Konrad von Moltke (International Institute for Sustainable Development): European Union / MERCOSUR<br />

Negotiations. The Environment and Sustainable Development Dimension, edited by: WWF European Policy Office,<br />

Belgien & WWF Brazil, April 2002, p. 24.<br />

47 The Guardian reported: “The commission froze all contracts with Planistat two weeks ago as part of a crackdown<br />

on “widespread irregularities” in Eurostat, which Neil Kinnock, the commission’s vice-president, said gave rise to<br />

deep concerns.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/euro/story/0,11306,1004606,00.html.<br />

25

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