Brussels, 22/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting organised in Brussels on 21 June by Peter Ludlow's CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies), Belgium's Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador Frans van Dael, who from 1 July will chair Coreper, sketched out some priorities of the Belgian Presidency for the second half of this year. Mr. van Dael spoke of:
(1) "the EU's domestic policies", and notably:
- immigration and asylum policy. "We'll certainly try to make real progress" in aligning the conditions for granting asylum, said Ambassador van Daele, noting that, at present, Member States interpreted the Geneva Convention in different ways. The working programme launched at Tampere (at the October 1999 Summit) has only been carried out in an incomplete manner, and we have been asked, to set out, at the European Summit of Laeken in December, where we stand with this programme, Frans van Dael remarked, saying that this reminded him of fifteen years ago regarding the internal market, when "people couldn't see the wood for the trees", whereas Delors had had the merit of finding a "methodology".
- the Sustainable Development Strategy. At the Gothenburg Summit, the General Affairs Council was instructed to "oversee the whole operation", stressed van Daele, for whom this demonstrated that "there is something to say for the coordinating role of the General Affairs Council". ("The horizontal preparation of the Sustainable Development Strategy will be coordinated by the General Affairs Council", says point 24 of the Conclusions of the Swedish Presidency on the European Council of Gothenburg: see our Special Edition of 17 June).
(2) enlargement. Mr. van Daele noted that several chapters will be opened, all difficult, like Justice and Home Affairs, competition, transport, the first chapter of agricultural negotiations. As for the "timing" set out by the Gothenburg Summit for the first accessions, Ambassador van Daele said that these indications were "basically an expression of what must happen through the implementation of the road map".
(3) foreign policy. Mr. van Daele especially mentioned crisis-management in Africa.
(4) Europe's future. The Laeken Summit should provide a "double added value", on: - the procedure (convening of a "Convention-like body"); - the stakes (details of the agenda of the future IGC).