Brussels, 10/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 13 November, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the EU will discuss the situation in the Balkans, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Middle East. Tuesday 14 November, several cooperation councils will take place between the EU and Armenia, Azerbaijan, South Africa and Georgia respectively. An association Council will also bring together Europeans and Jordanians.
After the joint meeting with the Defence Ministers (see next article), the Ministers will start their work with a general affairs session. Firstly, they will look at preparations for the European Council of 14 and 15 December on the basis of a draft agenda put together by the Finnish Presidency: mainly the enlargement of the EU, justice and home affairs, an innovation and energy point which was raised in Lahti (EUROPE 9291) and an external relations segment. Over lunch, they will return to various progress reports on Turkey, Croatia and the western Balkan States, published by the Commission this week (EUROPE 9302), but will not go into any detail on this issue. Lastly, they will hold a public debate on the work programme of the Commission for 2007, which lists 21 strategic initiatives (EUROPE 9293).
The section on external relations will concentrate firstly on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, further to the elections of 29 October, the smooth functioning of which were congratulated by the Commission and the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana (EUROPE 9297). In its conclusions, the Council will also stress the positive role played by European troops in the country (operation EUFOR-RDC), the mandate for which is due to expire on 30 November (see other article). The Foreign Affairs Ministers will then look at the situation in the Serbian province of Kosovo and are expected to adopt conclusions in line with the recommendations of the contact group, which met in Vienna on 10 November. On Friday, the American, British, Italian, French, German and Russian representatives are to discuss the future status of the province with the UN special representative, Martti Athisaari, who will also be present in Brussels on Monday. On Friday, the Serbian President set the date for the Parliamentary elections in Serbia at 21 January next year. This decision may move the planned timetable to resolve the issue of the status beyond the end of the year, after the Serbian elections. The Council will also adopt negotiation mandates on visa facilitation and readmission agreements between the EU and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia and Albania respectively. The ministers will then go on to discuss the launch of a new Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) extended to the countries of South-East Europe. Discussions on the directions to be taken by negotiations concerning the EU-Russia partnership, which must be defined unanimously before the Summit of 24 November, are also on the agenda. This may be a contentious issue, as the Polish Minister for the Economy, Piotr Grzegorz Wozniak, indicated on Thursday that it would be difficult for Poland to subscribe to an agreement with Russia, if the latter fails to ratify the Energy Charter (see other article).
At lunch, the ministers will examine the situation in Afghanistan (together with the Defence Ministers - see other article), Iran and the Middle East. On this last, they will adopt conclusions, with violence continuing in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as illustrated by the Israeli operation of 7 November in Beit Hanoun, which left 18 dead (EUROPE 9303). They will also call upon the Palestinians to make progress towards the formation of a national union government, giving their full support to the efforts of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas towards this. The ministers will then grant a six-month extension to the EU border assistance mission at the passage point at Rafah (EUBAM Rafah). The council will reiterate its call for all parties to respect resolution 1701 on Lebanon, particularly the embargo on arms. The situation remains just as tense due to regular Tsahal flights over the Lebanese territory. Flights over Finul positions in Lebanon by Israeli military aircraft on 31 October nearly ended in "disaster", said the French Defence Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, on Wednesday. The Israeli aircraft "adopted a hostile position" towards French and German troops on the ground. Having seen the manoeuvre, these troops "were two seconds away from firing on the aircraft threatening them". Foreign Affairs Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called the Israeli ambassador to Paris, to ask for his word that such incidents would not happen again. Lastly, the ministers will take stock on the Iranian nuclear dossier, as the "Six" (EU-3, China, the United States and Russia) are still in talks at the Security Council on a draft UN resolution planning sanctions against Teheran.
The Council will also adopt conclusions on the situation in Uganda, and on the renewing of sanctions against Uzbekistan. The sanctions regime which has been in force since November 2005, further to the refusal of President Karimov to agree to an independent international investigation into the Andijan killings, expires on 14 November (EUROPE 9068). (ab / eh)