Brussels, 30/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The first meeting of the European Union foreign ministers after the summer break will be the informal "Gymnich" type meeting (after the name of the castle near Bonn where the first meeting of this kind took place) to be held on 2 and 3 September in Evian.
Meeting under the chairmanship of Hubert Védrine, in the presence of the High Representative for CFSP and the European Commission (Romano Prodi, Chris Patten and Michel Barnier), the ministers will begin their work with an exchange of views during the luncheon on Saturday, on the subject of the Middle East Peace Process, until they learn, among other things, whether there will or not be, on 13 September, a unilateral proclamation of a Palestinian State (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.2). On Saturday afternoon, the work will cover EU external relations, following the debate opened in May by the communication of European Commissioner Chris Patten on the requirements, constraints and priorities of EU policy in this field (see on this subject EUROPE/Documents N.2193 published on 10 June, as well as EUROPE of 18 May, p.11, 8 June p.7 and 9 June p.7).
During Sunday morning, discussions will bear on the future prospects of the European Union: the participants at the Evian meeting will thus continue the debate already initiated during their previous "Gymnich" meeting on 5 and 6 May in the Azores, and rekindled with the speech by Joschka Fischer at the Humboldt Universität on 12 May (see EUROPE of 13 May, pages 3 and 4) and the speech by President Chirac to the Bundestag on 27 June (see EUROPE of 29 June, p.4). The lunch on Sunday will be mainly devoted to the outlook of FRY, with a view to the elections scheduled for 24 September this year.