Brussels, 22/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Conference (organisation created to gather together in a single forum the EU countries, the accession candidate countries and the countries that want to establish various ties with the EU) will gather this Thursday at ministerial level in Sochaux/Montbeliard (France). The Foreign Ministers of the fifteen Union countries are expected to take part, as well as those from the twelve candidate countries negotiating their accession, Turkey and Switzerland. IN addition to the ministerial meetings, a meeting-debate will be held in the afternoon with the participation of the ministers and personalities such as jacques Delors, N. Geremek and T. Von Tadden on the theme: "What will Europe's future be?".
This resumption of work by the euroepan Conference (which remained on the back burner for some time) will be followed two weeks later by a session at the level of the Heads of state and government on 7 December in Nice before the European Council. It will then be possible to see whether the organisation has t ruly been rekindled with new tasks.