Brussels, 27/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - Foreign Affairs Ministers form the Fifteen will meet on Monday in Brussels for a General Affairs Council focusing on the preparation of the enlargement chapter of the European Council in Brussels on 24-25 October and try and obtain a common position on the possible negotiation of agreements with the USA on the International Criminal Court. They will also be examining a certain number of other cases. The Council will begin at 9.30 H. At lunch, the Ministers will discuss the situation in the Middle East, Iraq and Zimbabwe. They will also listen to a presentation from the Greek Minister on European Security and Defence Policy. At 15.3 H they will hold a public debate on the European Commission proposal on trade and development (EUROPE 18 September p 9). On Tuesday, the Council will be followed by Ministerial level Accession Conferences with the twelve candidate countries and Co-operation Councils with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The General Affairs Council and external relations will only last a day, in order to avoid decamping to Luxembourg at Midnight, explained the Presidency, given that the Councils in October will be held in Luxembourg.
Enlargement/Preparation of the European Council: Foreign Affairs Ministers will begin preparations for the European Council in Brussels. The Presidency has outlined that for the instant the only two subjects on the agenda at the summit are enlargement (list of countries that are joining in 2004, common position of the Fifteen on the financial and institutional chapters) and Kaliningrad. The Presidency pointed to the new system of making the agenda more detailed, in preparation of the conclusions, which would be done progressively over the next month. On 28 October, the Presidency will inform candidate countries of the positions of Member States during a mini-summit in Copenhagen (see EUROPE 18-20 September for the most recent developments on accession negotiations).
Convention: The Vice President of the Convention, Giuliano Amato will review the progress of the work (see p 5).
Floods: The Council is going to attempt to overcome the divergences brought to the fore at Coreper regarding the field of application and the intervention threshold for the European Solidarity Fund for Disasters (EUROPE yesterday p 9). The Presidency has given assurances that the majority of Member States want to limit this fund to natural disasters. The Danish Presidency also regrets that the European Parliament has not yet come up with a negotiating position. Nevertheless, it believes that everything will be ready for the Fund to go into operation "before the end of October".
Trade and Development: During the public debate on the Commission Communication, Ministers raised the following questions: 1) what elements should be included in a trade policy that benefits development? Are there issues brought up at Doha where the EU should strengthen its efforts? 2) What are the priorities of trade integration in development policy? What lessons should be drawn from bilateral action of Member States? 3) How can the coherency of European policies be improved?
Switzerland: The Danish Presidency of the Council indicated that this would again involve "our old friend savings taxes". A source from the Presidency, while indicating that, "The EU is ready to advance in some chapters, but it is clear that if no progress is made on taxation, it will be very hard for a Presidency to obtain a majority at the Council to conclude the other chapters", explained that this was just an observation and not a threat. Luxembourg and Austria are still opposed to hard and fast conclusions being reached on this subject (EUROPE 22 June).
Kaliningrad: The objective is still to reach an agreement at the EU/Russia Summit on 11 November (EUROPE 19 September p 7). Romano Prodi and Vladimir Putin spoke together on the phone on Thursday. Russia is not happy with what it has been proposed but it has still not thrown out the European proposal. At lunchtime on Friday, a spokesman for President Prodi explained that they were eager to find a solution as quickly as possible.
International Criminal Court: The Presidency is "moderately optimistic" about the possibility of Member States adopting (as they had made a commitment to do) a common position on Monday n the negotiation of exemption agreements for some US citizens. The Political and Security Committee (COPS) and permanent representatives from the fifteen (Coreper) are expected to discuss the issue on Friday. The Presidency recognises that they "are going in the direction" of facilitating bilateral agreements but in a very limited way. (See EUROPE yesterday p 4 on subject of European Parliament debate).
Western Balkans: The High representative, Javier Solana and Commissioner Chris Patten will be providing a feed-back on their respective visits to the regions. Member States will be discussing the elections on 5 October in Bosnia and the most recent developments in Yugoslavia, as well as the follow-up to the elections in Macedonia and the implementation of reforms in Albania.
Euro-Mediterranean investment mechanism: The Council will have an exchange of views at the summit, as requested by Italy. The ECOFIN Council approved the creation of this mechanism on 20 June on the basis of EUR 255 million for 2003-2006 and has asked the Commission to see how they can increase the availability of venture capital under this mechanism, particularly through the Meda programme.
Steel/USA: This question has been included in point A, given that the Fifteen decided to not apply sanctions for the time being and continue with the matter via the WTO, indicated the Presidency (see EUROPE yesterday p 13 and today p 10).