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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