Brussels, 01/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of the Regions (CoR) will meet on Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 July in Brussels, under the chairmanship of Peter Straub. Volatile debates seem to be brewing on the Constitution and the progress made towards EU accession by Bulgaria, Romania and, in the longer term, Turkey.
On Wednesday at 15: 15, the British minister for local government Phil Wollas will present the Presidency priorities. This will be followed by an intervention by the Commissioner for institutional relations and communication strategy Margot Wallström on the current political situation in the EU, information for citizens and relations between the Commission and the Committee. The members are then due to approve opinions on: 1) “citizenship of the EU” and the “Fundamental Rights Agency” (rapporteur: Ms du Granrut, member of the Picardy Regional Council); 2) Commission communication on progress made: - by Turkey on the path to accession (Ms Lund, DK/PES); - in the enlargement process by Bulgaria (Mr Tögel, DE/PES) and Romania (Mr Abel, DK/EPP); - 3) establishing a new social agenda 2006-2010 (Ms Serri, Italy/PES).
On Thursday at 09: 30, the Commissioner for competition policy Neelie Kroes will speak on the theme “A modern State aid regime: the regional dimension”. Her intervention will be followed by a debate on the report by Mr Alvares Areces (Spain/PES) on the “revision of the guidelines on regional State aid “. The members will then examine two CoR own-initiative reports presented by Mr Keyner (RU/EPP) on “Guidelines for the application of the rules on State aid in the air-transport sector” and by Mr Munoa Gabuza (Spain/ALDE) on “Devolution in the enlarged European Union and the place of local and regional self-government in the Constitutional Treaty”. Finally, they will be called upon to approve the report by Mr Ancisi (Italy/EPP) on “An EU approach to managing economic migration”.