Brussels, 19/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the European Commission confirmed that it would prefer to put back adoption of the communication on financial perspectives till after 2006. It has therefore cancelled the discussion on this sensitive case which should have taken place on Tuesday in Strasbourg between Commissioners (EUROPE 14 November 2003 p 7). This documents will therefore not be presented on 12-13 December to Heads of State and Governments of the EU as initially planned. This is likely to be due to the wish to not enflame debates on the future European constitution. This action is seen to be welcome by a number of Commissioners but not by President Prodi who want the Commission to stick to its commitments. The Commission has not even fixed a date for the next seminar on financial perspective.
In this context, the Commission is also expected to put back the publication of the third report on cohesion expected for the beginning of December. In fact, the content of this report will strongly depend on orientations over the next financial framework.