EU Foreign Ministers discuss the November European Council meeting
Government Information Unit
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Press release 313/2004
6 October 2004
The EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) will meet on 11 and 12 October in Luxembourg. The main themes of the meeting will be the preparation for the November European Council and European Neighbourhood Policy. Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will represent Finland at the GAERC meeting.
The Netherlands, the country currently holding the EU Presidency, will present a preliminary agenda for the forthcoming European Council meeting. The agenda will focus on the Mid Term Review of the Lisbon Strategy in spring 2005, adoption of the multi-annual Tampere II Programme on Justice and Home Affairs, ways to improve information dissemination to citizens, external relations and Commission's reports on enlargement .
Finland is of the opinion that the European Union's ambitions with regard to the new Tampere II Programme must equal those set for the Tampere European Council in 1999. The November European Council should agree on concrete measures and timetable in order to further the development of Justice and Home Affairs.
On 6 October, Günther Verheugen, Member of the Commission responsible for enlargement issues, will present to the Foreign Ministers the Commission's enlargement reports on Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. The reports will be brought to thorough discussion later on in the autumn. The Foreign Ministers will also monitor the implementation of the Declaration and Action Plan against Terrorism.
The Foreign Ministers will continue discussion on the EU's future financial framework. Finland supports the Presidency's approach based on so-called building blocks as it provides a concrete way to discern the discrepancies in the views of different countries. The Member States' joint objective to bring the negotiations to a conclusion by next summer requires that considerable progress be achieved during the ongoing autumn.
In the context of External Relations, the meeting will discuss the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the relevant European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). On 18 June 2004, the European Council adopted conclusions on the European Neighbourhood Policy. The objectives of ENP will be implemented via jointly drafted country-specific action plans. Action plans have been agreed upon with Moldova, Ukraine, Tunis, Morocco, Jordan and the Palestinian administration. Negotiations with Israel are still under way.
The Union's financial instrument for the neighbourhood policy, the ENPI, will be directed for the financing of action plans and cross-border cooperation, in other words, the neighbourhood programmes. Cooperation with Russia will also be financed through the ENPI as of 2007. Border region cooperation is included as a separate area within the ENPI. Until now, financing for border region cooperation between Finland and Russia has been applied for from the Union's Interreg and Tacis programmes but the ENPI will offer means to co-finance joint ventures through a single financial source.
The Ministers will discuss the activities of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY, Carla del Ponte, has been invited to the GAERC meeting. The intention is that the tribunal, established by UN Security Council resolution in 1993, will continue until 2010. That requires, however, that certain cases will be brought to a conclusion by then. According to the tribunal, cooperation between the tribunal and Western Balkan countries has weakened. The EU strongly supports the activities of the tribunal and requires that all countries in the region fully cooperate with it.
The meeting will also discuss the possibility of lifting the sanctions against Libya. The EU imposed weapons export ban on Libya after a strike to a nightclub in Berlin in 1986. Other sanctions were imposed in 1992-1993 as the UN's sanctions on Libya had entered into force. The UN lifted its sanctions last year when Libya tightened its cooperation with the international community, admitted Libyan involvement in terrorist acts and condemned terrorism. In June this year, the EU and Libya agreed on the compensations payable to the victims of the Berlin strike which enables the EU to consider the possibility of lifting the Union's sanctions.
Further information: Jari Luoto, State Under-Secretary for EU Affairs, Government Secretariat for EU Affairs, tel. +358 9 1602 2182 and Päivi Nevala, Attaché, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 6145