Brussels, 15/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - Monday's General Affairs Council in Luxembourg examined a series of "horizontal" issues including:
India/Pakistan relations: Ministers discussed this subject at a request by the United Kingdom which fears, as Jack Straw explained to his counterparts, that the conflict may resume if it is forgotten about. Javier Solana and Chris Patten are to be in the region towards the end of May but it is not yet known whether they will make the visit together.
Wider Europe, beyond future Member States: As predicted, the Fifteen called on the European Commission to draw up a communication by this autumn on European Union relations with its future neighbours (Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, …). During the discussion, Italian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Silvio Berlusconi spoke of Russia's possible accession to the European Union. Several diplomatic sources point out that German Minister Joschka Fischer made it quite clear in his response to this that this was not the way he saw things.
Enlargement: At France's request, which insists that the General Affairs Council "regularly take stock of the state of accession negotiations", Commissioner Verheugen made a presentation to Council. Everyone is committed to making sufficient progress at the European Council in Seville in June for the Danish Presidency to be able to "focus on concluding negotiations", Hubert Védrine stressed.
Terrorism: Without further discussion, the Council adopted the updated roadmap of the European Union for combating terrorism.