Unemployment dominated this month's debates in Strasbourg and Brussels. Commission president Jacques Santer set out his strategy for creating 12 million jobs, and put it on the agenda for the special Luxembourg employment summit. Parliament's contribution was to vote for a special initiative in the EU's budget to combat unemployment.
MEPs were also involved in trying to settle a number of contentious single market issues, such as whether motorists should be obliged to use car manufacturers' spare parts, and the conditions under which Irish and British chocolate can be exported to European markets from which it is at present excluded.