Brussels, 08/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The foreign ministers of the Fifteen will meet for their monthly Council in Brussels on Monday to prepare for the forthcoming deadlines (Johannesburg Summit), attempt to adopt a brief for negotiating a co-operation agreement with Iran and discuss the situation in the Middle East (only over lunch). For the first time, the defence ministers will participate in the General Affairs Council. A discussion on crisis management will bring them together with foreign ministers early afternoon, following a separate meeting between themselves in the morning. The Council will be followed Monday evening by a joint Council with Mexico (see below), and, on Tuesday, a meeting between European defence ministers and their counterparts from candidate countries, Norway and Iceland. Monday evening, foreign ministers will head off for Reykjavik, where, on 14 and 15 May, there is to be the meeting of NATO member countries and those of partner countries. The documents being ready, preparations for the EU/Latin American Summit of 17 and 18 May in Madrid, are not expected to be on the agenda, the Presidency explained. The Council will begin at 9.30 hrs., to broach the following issues:
Co-operation agreement with Iran: the Spanish Presidency was fairly confident on Wednesday that the Council would adopt a brief to hand the Commission the care of negotiating an co-operation agreement with Iran. The idea of such an agreement was "decided after 11 September", in view of Iran's attitude, the Spanish permanent representative, Javier Conde, stressed. Talks within the EU "have progressed at technical level", he added. The permanent representatives of the Fifteen had not yet agreed on Wednesday on the type of agreement the EU wants to sign (trade and co-operation agreement, agreement on services…). Or the form and place to reserve for human rights and terrorism clauses. Ministers will have to decide on Monday if they want to include a clause on combating terrorism in the agreement itself of whether this obligation would be formulated separately, for example by an exchange of letters. The second option is said to have the Commission's preference, so as not to slow down the procedure of adopting the agreement, European sources tell us.
European security and defence policy: the Council will adopt conclusions on the state of progress to achieve the objective set by the European Council of Laeken concerning the EU's military capabilities. The following issues will be broached: 1) capabilities development mechanism; 2) progress of the European capabilities action plan; 3) aspects of the rapid response of the future European force ("Headline Goal") of Helsinki; 4) elements of control and command for the headquarters; 5) co-operation in matters of armaments. The Council will consider the funding of the EU military capabilities.
The Council will also discuss the question of crisis management: 1) preparations of the EU police force in Bosnia-Herzegovina; 2) the EU's possible mission in Macedonia; 3) the Union's relations with NATO. On this last point, there is still hope of reaching agreement with Greece on the Ankara compromise on Turkey's participation in EU-led operations, under ESDP. Javier Conde, however, considers that "there has not been much progress" on this issue. "Our objective was Reykjavik (Ed: the EU/NATO Council of 14 and 15 May) but without a miracle we shall not achieve that", added Carles Casajuana, Spanish Ambassador to Cops (Political and Security Committee), envisaging an agreement on this issue at the Seville Summit.
Balkans: the Council will adopt conclusions on the situation in the Balkans and relations between the EU and the countries concerned, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Yugoslavia and Macedonia. These conclusions will be based on the first annual report by the Commission on the stabilisation and association process for South East Europe. This report traces the major outlines of this process launched in 1999 by the Fifteen to frame their policy vis-à-vis the Balkans (see EUROPE of April, p. 10). A strong signal is expected concerning Serbia and Montenegro. Indeed, the possibility of a stabilisation and association agreement with this country depends on the respect of the 14 March 2001 agreement governing the new political relations between the two republics (see EUROPE of 15 and 16 April, p.5) and Belgrade's clear commitment to co-operate with the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Middle East: the situation in the Middle East will only be discussed over lunch (as well as the fate of Romania and Bulgaria following the first wave of accessions, at Greece's request). The Fifteen should discuss the accusation, by Israel, of the use of Community funds by the Palestinian Authority to finance terrorist attacks. On Monday, the Commission received a report on this issue from Israel. It is currently analysing the report, in Brussels and in the Middle East, the Commission's spokesperson explained. Commissioner Patten sent a letter to Member states on Wednesday to inform them that he would raise this issue over lunch on Monday (see EUROPE of 6/7 May, p.6). …/..
Johannesburg Summit. COREPER held long "procedural" discussions to decide whether the Council should adopt conclusions or political guidelines for the summit but did not actually make up its mind, explained a diplomat. The European Commission presented draft conclusions directly to COREPER although this had not been included in the Presidency timetable for preparing for the World Sustainable Development Summit, rather than going through work groups, explained Javier Conde. The Commission's aim was for the EU to have a sufficiently enough position ahead of the preparatory meeting in Bali from 27 May to 7 June. The EU will adopt more detailed conclusions at the 30 May Development Council, and the final position at the Seville European Council. The Jo'burg Summit will be held at the end of August 2002. EU countries fail to agree on the initiatives to be taken, with Northern countries wanting to do more, but Southern countries concerned about how their farmers will fare if markets are opened further, explained a diplomat.
Effectiveness of EU external action. The Council will again consider ways of improving the EU's external action. The issue was brought up in February (see EUROPE of 19 February) and will be addressed again on Monday in the light of reports from various Council work groups (development, budget, justice and home affairs) and a summary by the Presidency. Commissioner Patten will present case studies. Javier Solana is also expected to make a presentation. Experts have stressed the need to improve collaboration between the different work groups under the various pillars (particularly JHA and external relations). Advisors on development issues have worked on a Commission memorandum outlining progress in the past year in terms of cooperation with the United Nations and its agencies (discussions on the 1999 framework agreement, co-ordination meeting, drawing up criteria to govern work with the agencies, etc) and have also discussed the need to make an accurate assessment of aid programmes for developing countries and the importance of setting clear criteria for the adoption of programmes and setting conditions on the aid granted. An expert commented that the budget committee had "unanimously" confirmed that the Council has rejected the Commission's proposal to set up an additional flexibility instrument to fund civilian crisis management. The Council is reported to prefer the idea of ad hoc funding by Member States, separate from the Community budget, but the Commission is opposed to this. Member States are also calling for greater flexibility under the "external relations" heading of the budget, without overstepping the Financial Perspectives.
Annual political strategy for 2003. The Council is expected to adopt rather general conclusions on the document setting out the European Commission's political and budgetary priorities for 2003 (see EUROPE of 28 February). This political document was considered by the 11 March General Affairs Council. Meanwhile, the European Commission has unveiled its Preliminary Draft Budget for 2003 (see EUROPE of 1 May).
Economic partnership with ACP countries. The Council will make an initial sounding of the draft negotiating mandates for economic partnership agreements with ACP countries. Ministers will discuss market access for products and WTO negotiations. The Council's aim is to adopt the negotiating mandates by the end of July in order to be able to launch the negotiations in September.
Africa. The Portuguese Minister will give an outline of his recent trip to Angola, and Louis Michel (Belgium) on the Great Lakes region.
Other Councils. As usual, the discussions will first survey progress in work involving other Council formations, particularly Justice and Home Affairs (25 April) and ECOFIN (5 May). The Council will also consider preparations for the 21 May Internal Market Council.