What did the discussion about the EU's long term budget offer the public?
Yesterday the General Affairs Council (GAC) publicly debated the long term budget (officially, the multiannual financial framework MFF), which is going to determine the EU's annual budgets 2014-2020.
The MFF is how the EU member states control income and expenditure, despite the much touted new powers of the European Parliament regarding the annual budgets. The EP can only accept or reject the MFF.
Yesterday, the ministers did not discuss the long term budget, but a ”negotiating box” covering four categories of expenditure (known as "headings"): heading 1 “Smart and inclusive growth” (except for cohesion policy and the Connecting Europe Facility), heading 3 “Security and citizenship”, heading 4 “Global Europe” (EU's external action) and heading 5 (administration).
In other words, it was not like the discussion of a house, but of an important section of the blueprint of the building.
Openness
The Council press people have written an article about the GAC meeting and tried to make the MFF negotiating process comprehensible. There are helpful links to web pages concerning the Multiannual Financial Framwork 2014-2020 (and further news, proposals and videos) and the outline of the negotiating box.
The discussion was webcast directly, and those who are interested can watch the recording as an example of Council debate. The recording also serves, if you want to know the main negotiating aims of one or more countries. You can also see the emerging front lines.
When the interventions of the chairman and Commissioners are added to each of the 27 EU member states (plus Croatia) making its main points in three minutes, this ”tour de table” or series of monologues took about two hours and a quarter.
There is also the 30 min video recording of the press conference with the Danish minister Nicolai Wammen, who chaired the meeting, and the commissioners Maroš Šefčovič (inter-institutional relations and administration) and Janusz Lewandowski (financial programming and budget).
Even if this was an 'early stages' discussion, the press conference offers some distilled information and intelligent questions from journalists.
It is not easy to summarise the diverging opinions of the member states, but perhaps for the first time the GAC conclusions look as if someone had made an effort (without naming and shaming individual countries):
3158th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 26 March 2012 (document 8129/12)
Read the conclusions, if you want to know the bones of contention at a general level.
Improvements
The General Affairs Council has been been a real disappointment with regard to openness, governance standards and effectiveness during the first two years of the Lisbon Treaty.
It is therefore worth noting that the quality of advance information (although very late) and the conclusions has improved during the Danish presidency.
As in the case of the eurozone (Eurogroup, Euro Summit), the Council press service has enhanced the quality of presentation lately, although the opaque nature of these coteries remains.
Media
About ten countries want to squeeze the Commission proposals by some EUR100 billion. Here are some media reports.
Eight countries want to scrap the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), which spends about EUR500 million annually, according to the Swedish EU minister Birgitta Ohlsson (Europaportalen.se). No financial transaction tax (FTT) for the EU coffers to reduce the national contributions, according to Ohlsson.
Ten countries asked for macroeconomic conditionality to be extended to all forms of EU expenditure, Europolitics reported in a good summary of the contents of the GAC discussion.
Ahead of the annual budget for 2013, the Commission tells the institutions to limit expenditure (EUobserver). While member states want to cut expenses for administration, the Commission counters with problems to recruit officials from the rich member states or from fields where the private sector offers more for top talent (EUobserver).
Ralf Grahn
speaker and lecturer on EU affairs
P.S. The multilingual Bloggingportal.eu already aggregates the posts from 948 Euroblogs. They represent an integral part of the emerging European online public sphere, discussion across national and linguistic borders. Regards-citoyens is a highly productive French blog, which mixes own articles and analysis with selected writings from other media and news from the EU institutions.
Among the Euroblogs on Bloggingportal.eu you find my current blog trio, Grahnlaw (recently ranked fourth among political blogs in Finland), the Nordic Grahnblawg (written in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (meaning European Law, in Finnish). I write and speak about democracy and openness in the European Union, but increasingly about the crucial challenges of the global era for Europe: growth (EU2020) and the (digital) single market in the making.
The other social media where I am active: Twitter, Facebook ja Google+
Showing posts with label General Affairs Council. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Affairs Council. Show all posts
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Euro crises: European Council eviscerated?
The European Council was inaugurated as the supremo among the official EU institutions just two years ago, by the Lisbon Treaty. A cascade of meetings, both official ones and inofficial summits, has followed during the financial, sovereign debt and economic crises.
It may sound paradoxical, but my feeling is that the European Council has been gutted by the euro area crises and by design.
This blog post continues the discussion in the entry Transparency during the eurozone crises, based on my presentation at the 22 February 2012 Attac seminar, but with some modifications, updates and documentary references.
Eviscerated European Council?
Already, the latest statements from the informal summits for the EU as a whole, such as 26 October 2011, and the formal European Council conclusions, 23 october 2011 (EUCO 52/1/11) and 9 December 2011 (EUCO 139/1/11), look pretty anaemic.
It is as if the European Council had been eviscerated, emptied of content of late.
The spring meeting has traditionally been dedicated to all aspects of economic issues, but we have to wait to see what EUCO produces in terms of substance 1-2 March 2012 in the light of the EUCO annotated draft agenda (Council document 5354/12).
Summit or EU institution?
The first two years of the European Council as an official EU institution could be marked down as a lost opportunity with regard to openness and closeness to the citizen of the European Union.
In the beginning, EUCO president Herman Van Rompuy underlined that the European Council was an official institution, but in practice it continued to act as an international summit between leaders, without adopting practices of openness and good governance.
By this I mean in particular the preparatory phase from the Council configurations through the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC), which has proved a real disappointment.
In order to illustrate the point, I ask you to look at the draft agenda of the GAC and the background note ahead of the 28 February 2012 meeting. Do we see clear proposals going in and can we expect the GAC to make public propositions to EUCO for public debate ahead of conclusions?
For comparison, we also have the customary annotated agenda from the government of Sweden: Allänna rådets möte den 28 februari 2012 – Kommenterad dagordning. Thin, is how I see it, instead of a clear paper trail from proposal to discussion, with public debate in between.
***
Perhaps some of us find it comforting to see that we citizens are in such noble company – at least in part with the heads of state or government of the non-euro states – watching more of real policy making disappear into the even bigger black hole of beefed-up Eurogroup support and the permanent Euro Summit.
Perhaps some of us are comfortable with the GAC and EUCO continuing to labour in the mode of diplomatic conferences, instead of as accountable and transparent institutions of European government and governance.
Perhaps we should not be. Yesterday, the Swedish economist Anders Bäckstrand wrote on Europaportalen that the euro crisis has started a process towards a more distinctly political Europe, but political legitimacy is necessary for this to succeed.
Ralf Grahn
speaker on EU affairs, especially digital policy and law
P.S. 1: For better or for worse, between the global issues and the national level, the European Union institutions and the eurozone coteries shape our future. At the same time we see a European public sphere emerging. More than 900 euroblogs are aggregated by multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. Is your blog already listed among them? Are you following the debates which matter for your future?
P.S. 2: Referring the anti-piracy treaty #ACTA to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) marks a lull in the proceedings, but not an end to the political battle. A few moments ago, the online petition launched by @Avaaz for the European Parliament (and the national parliaments) to reject ACTA had already been signed by 2,427,119 netizens, but more are welcome until the official burial.
Today, Saturday 25 February 2012, European netizens join forces through more than 150 demonstrations for open and democratic legislation and Internet freedoms. In Finland Stop ACTA Helsinki convenes in front of the Central Railway Station at 14:00 hours.
It may sound paradoxical, but my feeling is that the European Council has been gutted by the euro area crises and by design.
This blog post continues the discussion in the entry Transparency during the eurozone crises, based on my presentation at the 22 February 2012 Attac seminar, but with some modifications, updates and documentary references.
Eviscerated European Council?
Already, the latest statements from the informal summits for the EU as a whole, such as 26 October 2011, and the formal European Council conclusions, 23 october 2011 (EUCO 52/1/11) and 9 December 2011 (EUCO 139/1/11), look pretty anaemic.
It is as if the European Council had been eviscerated, emptied of content of late.
The spring meeting has traditionally been dedicated to all aspects of economic issues, but we have to wait to see what EUCO produces in terms of substance 1-2 March 2012 in the light of the EUCO annotated draft agenda (Council document 5354/12).
Summit or EU institution?
The first two years of the European Council as an official EU institution could be marked down as a lost opportunity with regard to openness and closeness to the citizen of the European Union.
In the beginning, EUCO president Herman Van Rompuy underlined that the European Council was an official institution, but in practice it continued to act as an international summit between leaders, without adopting practices of openness and good governance.
By this I mean in particular the preparatory phase from the Council configurations through the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC), which has proved a real disappointment.
In order to illustrate the point, I ask you to look at the draft agenda of the GAC and the background note ahead of the 28 February 2012 meeting. Do we see clear proposals going in and can we expect the GAC to make public propositions to EUCO for public debate ahead of conclusions?
For comparison, we also have the customary annotated agenda from the government of Sweden: Allänna rådets möte den 28 februari 2012 – Kommenterad dagordning. Thin, is how I see it, instead of a clear paper trail from proposal to discussion, with public debate in between.
***
Perhaps some of us find it comforting to see that we citizens are in such noble company – at least in part with the heads of state or government of the non-euro states – watching more of real policy making disappear into the even bigger black hole of beefed-up Eurogroup support and the permanent Euro Summit.
Perhaps some of us are comfortable with the GAC and EUCO continuing to labour in the mode of diplomatic conferences, instead of as accountable and transparent institutions of European government and governance.
Perhaps we should not be. Yesterday, the Swedish economist Anders Bäckstrand wrote on Europaportalen that the euro crisis has started a process towards a more distinctly political Europe, but political legitimacy is necessary for this to succeed.
Ralf Grahn
speaker on EU affairs, especially digital policy and law
P.S. 1: For better or for worse, between the global issues and the national level, the European Union institutions and the eurozone coteries shape our future. At the same time we see a European public sphere emerging. More than 900 euroblogs are aggregated by multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. Is your blog already listed among them? Are you following the debates which matter for your future?
P.S. 2: Referring the anti-piracy treaty #ACTA to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) marks a lull in the proceedings, but not an end to the political battle. A few moments ago, the online petition launched by @Avaaz for the European Parliament (and the national parliaments) to reject ACTA had already been signed by 2,427,119 netizens, but more are welcome until the official burial.
Today, Saturday 25 February 2012, European netizens join forces through more than 150 demonstrations for open and democratic legislation and Internet freedoms. In Finland Stop ACTA Helsinki convenes in front of the Central Railway Station at 14:00 hours.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
EU General Affairs Council: Feeding the cuckoos?
Have you ever followed the hectic life of small birds, unwittingly having become foster parents for a gluttonous young cuckoo?
Hectic and unrewarding, the life of these unsung heroes.
How about having two of these rapacious strangers, instead of only one, as in nature?
Why do I think about the thankless task of these desperate and overworked foster parents, when I turn to the visible output from the General Affairs Council of the European Union?
More than foreign affairs
Although the European Union is much, much more than foreign affairs, the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC) is still dominated by foreign ministers, for whom it is a sideshow.
At the same time, the foreign ministers face the enormous challenge to shape the European Union into an effictive and influential actor in world affairs, in all fields of external action. Enough of a challenge to keep the foreign ministers busy for a decade or more, I would think, even if they concentrated on this main job.
GAC role
Currently the GAC does not fulfil the expectations created by the Lisbon Treaty, which gave it a permanent and important treaty based position.
The GAC was entrusted with the vital role to coordinate Council work (other configurations). It is also the task of the General Affairs Council to prepare and to ensure the follow-up of the European Council.
The bulk of real EU powers and resources concerns about two dozen policy areas of internal action, so the challenge looks daunting enough, but consistency has been left to the foreign policy divas, as a diversion.
In addition, the spring European Council is supposed to be the crowning moment for economic governance and economic reforms for growth and employment, guiding the work towards Europe 2020 (EU2020) goals.
Treaty aims vs delivery
The principles of as much openess as possible and as much closeness to the citizen as possible are laid down in Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union.
The enhanced role and tasks of the GAC were established by Article 16(6) TEU.
Article 16(6) TEU finally separated the GAC from its then dominant Siamese twin, the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).
In the name of openness and closeness, the GAC could and should become an important stage in public discourse just ahead of the European Council (as well as after), but what has happened?
Make your own assessment of how the aims and potential have come to fruition. Reflect on the gap between expectations, potential and delivery:
3079th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 21 March 2011 (Council document 7932/11)
Concrete conclusions
Instead of reasoned proposals and supporting materials, we get these inane ”conclusions”, with regard to the issues on the agenda of the European Council:
The Council took stock of the humanitarian situation in Libya and neighbouring countries.
The Council took stock of the EU's response to the humanitarian crisis in Japan.
The Council examined draft conclusions for the European Council meeting to be held on 24 and 25 March.
This is parody, pure and simple.
The rest of the text concerning economic policy is in essence an agenda, since it presents only the issues to be dealt with at the European Council (page 8-9).
The only redeeming feature would have been the report from the presidency on progress in implementation of the European Semester submitted to the European Council (doc. 7745/11), if the link in the original had actually worked.
If the GAC actually said something worthwhile, its tasks would be a bit more rewarding than feeding the cuckoos.
European Semester: implementation
Going back, the document reference is useful, though. If we substitute the broken link by Council search, we find the presidency report in 22 official EU languages, including English:
Implementation of the European Semester - Synthesis report; Brussels, 16 March 2011 (document 7745/11; 21 pages)
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The web pages of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union are one of the important sources of day to day information about EU events, including ones less visible than formal Council meetings.
Hectic and unrewarding, the life of these unsung heroes.
How about having two of these rapacious strangers, instead of only one, as in nature?
Why do I think about the thankless task of these desperate and overworked foster parents, when I turn to the visible output from the General Affairs Council of the European Union?
More than foreign affairs
Although the European Union is much, much more than foreign affairs, the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC) is still dominated by foreign ministers, for whom it is a sideshow.
At the same time, the foreign ministers face the enormous challenge to shape the European Union into an effictive and influential actor in world affairs, in all fields of external action. Enough of a challenge to keep the foreign ministers busy for a decade or more, I would think, even if they concentrated on this main job.
GAC role
Currently the GAC does not fulfil the expectations created by the Lisbon Treaty, which gave it a permanent and important treaty based position.
The GAC was entrusted with the vital role to coordinate Council work (other configurations). It is also the task of the General Affairs Council to prepare and to ensure the follow-up of the European Council.
The bulk of real EU powers and resources concerns about two dozen policy areas of internal action, so the challenge looks daunting enough, but consistency has been left to the foreign policy divas, as a diversion.
In addition, the spring European Council is supposed to be the crowning moment for economic governance and economic reforms for growth and employment, guiding the work towards Europe 2020 (EU2020) goals.
Treaty aims vs delivery
The principles of as much openess as possible and as much closeness to the citizen as possible are laid down in Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union.
The enhanced role and tasks of the GAC were established by Article 16(6) TEU.
Article 16(6) TEU finally separated the GAC from its then dominant Siamese twin, the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).
In the name of openness and closeness, the GAC could and should become an important stage in public discourse just ahead of the European Council (as well as after), but what has happened?
Make your own assessment of how the aims and potential have come to fruition. Reflect on the gap between expectations, potential and delivery:
3079th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 21 March 2011 (Council document 7932/11)
Concrete conclusions
Instead of reasoned proposals and supporting materials, we get these inane ”conclusions”, with regard to the issues on the agenda of the European Council:
The Council took stock of the humanitarian situation in Libya and neighbouring countries.
The Council took stock of the EU's response to the humanitarian crisis in Japan.
The Council examined draft conclusions for the European Council meeting to be held on 24 and 25 March.
This is parody, pure and simple.
The rest of the text concerning economic policy is in essence an agenda, since it presents only the issues to be dealt with at the European Council (page 8-9).
The only redeeming feature would have been the report from the presidency on progress in implementation of the European Semester submitted to the European Council (doc. 7745/11), if the link in the original had actually worked.
If the GAC actually said something worthwhile, its tasks would be a bit more rewarding than feeding the cuckoos.
European Semester: implementation
Going back, the document reference is useful, though. If we substitute the broken link by Council search, we find the presidency report in 22 official EU languages, including English:
Implementation of the European Semester - Synthesis report; Brussels, 16 March 2011 (document 7745/11; 21 pages)
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The web pages of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union are one of the important sources of day to day information about EU events, including ones less visible than formal Council meetings.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
EU General Affairs Council (GAC) communication: Wrong, stupid and a missed opportunity
Yesterday I published two blog posts in Swedish regarding the upcoming meeting of the General Affairs Council (GAC) the same day, 21 February 2011. The first entry looked at how the advance material published centrally by the Council managed to enlighten and engage the public. My conclusion was that despite coordinating heavyweight issues, the governments seem to exclude the citizens of the European Union on purpose: EU-rådet för allmänna frågor 21 februari 2011: Bedrövlig förhandsinformation.
I wondered how long the Nordic ministers participating in the GAC meetings would tolerate such lousy information before revolting, so in the second post I took a closer look at how the governments in Sweden, Finland and Denmark informed domestically about the issues on the agenda of the General Affairs Council. Sadly, even the Nordic governments seemed to have missed the GAC as an opportunity to communicate in any meaningful way or to invite valuable contributions from the wider society: EU-rådet för allmänna frågor: Vad gör Norden?
In my view, the GAC could be an important stock-taking and engaging milestone on the road towards improved guidelines from the European Council summits.
GAC conclusions
If the advance information was lousy, how much did the GAC meeting improve matters with regard to economic coordination and progress?
We now have the press release from the Council, with the GAC conclusions:
3068th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 21 February 2011 (Council document 6762/11; 8 pages)
With regard to the follow-up of the February European Council, we are informed that:
Not a word, not a document about substance, how guidelines are put into practice or preparations advancing.
***
With the eurozone crisis, economic governance, the ”competitiveness pact” and the Europe 2020 growth reforms, the future of European Union citizens hangs in the balance at the the March European Council.
How does the General Affairs Council improve our knowledge and reassure us about progress being made towards needed reforms?
Here are the GAC conclusions:
Does anyone find even a shred of new and valuable information compared with the already poor background note published before the GAC meeting or the old draft agenda?
GAC – missed opportunity
Despite the treaty based obligation to ensure a maximum of openness, the General Affairs Council and the European Council have, in tandem, adopted working habits and communication patterns designed to keep the public without any meaningful information about how crucial political issues are advancing.
Not only is this 'modus operandi' legally and morally wrong, it is stupid, counterproductive and a great opportunity missed to boot.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. What do Neelie Kroes, Andris Piebalgs, Maria Damanaki, Kristalina Georgieva and Cecilia Malmström have in common? They belong to the blogging minority among members of the European Commission. Kudos to them and to the Commission representation and services blogs you find behind the link.
P.S. 2: Political and macroeconomic guidelines emanating (or not) from the European Council and Council configurations at the top are important for our future, as are the questions of accountability and transparency from the viewpoint of EU citizens.
Details of internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among my recurring themes as well.
On my Euroblogs I want to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations.
Hopefully my blogs succeed in educating and guiding readers towards relevant sources. For me the blogs offer continuous updating and disciplined study as basic training for my teaching and legal counseling activities.
My blogs are: Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as downstream the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (usually later, with more sediment). On topic comments are most welcome.
If we share an interest in the European economy, business, politics or law, we could get acquainted through Twitter @RalfGrahn or Facebook.
I wondered how long the Nordic ministers participating in the GAC meetings would tolerate such lousy information before revolting, so in the second post I took a closer look at how the governments in Sweden, Finland and Denmark informed domestically about the issues on the agenda of the General Affairs Council. Sadly, even the Nordic governments seemed to have missed the GAC as an opportunity to communicate in any meaningful way or to invite valuable contributions from the wider society: EU-rådet för allmänna frågor: Vad gör Norden?
In my view, the GAC could be an important stock-taking and engaging milestone on the road towards improved guidelines from the European Council summits.
GAC conclusions
If the advance information was lousy, how much did the GAC meeting improve matters with regard to economic coordination and progress?
We now have the press release from the Council, with the GAC conclusions:
3068th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 21 February 2011 (Council document 6762/11; 8 pages)
With regard to the follow-up of the February European Council, we are informed that:
The Council took stock of the follow-up to be given to the European Council's meeting on 4 February, which [only officially; my addition] focused on energy and innovation.
Not a word, not a document about substance, how guidelines are put into practice or preparations advancing.
***
With the eurozone crisis, economic governance, the ”competitiveness pact” and the Europe 2020 growth reforms, the future of European Union citizens hangs in the balance at the the March European Council.
How does the General Affairs Council improve our knowledge and reassure us about progress being made towards needed reforms?
Here are the GAC conclusions:
The Council examined a draft annotated agenda for the European Council meeting to be held on 24 and 25 March, drawn up by the President of the European Council in cooperation with the presidency and the Commission (doc. 6231/11).Not a word, not a document indicating anything of substance, any indication of progress.
The March European Council is due to focus on:
Economic policy: Conclusion of the first phase of the European Semester (annual monitoring of budgetary policies and structural reforms), adoption of a decision amending the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union with regard to the future European Stability Mechanism (ESM), finalisation of work on the ESM and on the strengthening of the European Financial Stability Facility, finalisation of work by the Council on legislative proposals on economic governance, and a decision on economic policy coordination in the euro area.
– Developments in the EU's southern neighbourhood and follow-up to the 4 February European Council declaration on Egypt.
Does anyone find even a shred of new and valuable information compared with the already poor background note published before the GAC meeting or the old draft agenda?
GAC – missed opportunity
Despite the treaty based obligation to ensure a maximum of openness, the General Affairs Council and the European Council have, in tandem, adopted working habits and communication patterns designed to keep the public without any meaningful information about how crucial political issues are advancing.
Not only is this 'modus operandi' legally and morally wrong, it is stupid, counterproductive and a great opportunity missed to boot.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. What do Neelie Kroes, Andris Piebalgs, Maria Damanaki, Kristalina Georgieva and Cecilia Malmström have in common? They belong to the blogging minority among members of the European Commission. Kudos to them and to the Commission representation and services blogs you find behind the link.
P.S. 2: Political and macroeconomic guidelines emanating (or not) from the European Council and Council configurations at the top are important for our future, as are the questions of accountability and transparency from the viewpoint of EU citizens.
Details of internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among my recurring themes as well.
On my Euroblogs I want to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations.
Hopefully my blogs succeed in educating and guiding readers towards relevant sources. For me the blogs offer continuous updating and disciplined study as basic training for my teaching and legal counseling activities.
My blogs are: Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as downstream the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (usually later, with more sediment). On topic comments are most welcome.
If we share an interest in the European economy, business, politics or law, we could get acquainted through Twitter @RalfGrahn or Facebook.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Busy week in Brussels: EU politics and governance
With the General Affairs Council (GAC), the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) and the European Council, it was a busy week in Brussels politics. Here is a roundup of my main blog posts (often the second on the same theme, downstream) about the meetings and reflections on governance, including openness and transparency.
There are, in addition to fairly extensive references to documents, critical assessments of how the EU institutions work, as well as positive comments about praiseworthy efforts to get EU citizens on board.
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: EU General Affairs Council 31 January 2011 (30 January 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland, in Swedish: Egypten anslöjar EU:s utrikespolitik (Utrikesrådet 31 januari 2011) (31 January 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland, in Finnish: EU:n yleisten asioiden neuvosto valmisteli Eurooppa-nevoston kokousta 4. helmikuuta 2011 (1 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Miracle of European Council conclusions (4 February 2011) (2 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland, in Swedish: EU-rådet mörkar samordningen av ekonomisk politik och budgetpolitik (3 February 2011)
Grahnlaw: European Semester and Annual Growth Survey: Governance by mushroom principle (3 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: European Council 4 February 2011: Main issues (4 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: European Council 4 February 2011: Energy (4 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: European Council 4 February 2011: Eurozone solutions? (4 February 2011)
Eurooppaoikeus, in Finnish: Eurooppa 2030 -hanke: Haasteet ja mahdollisuudet (5 February 2011)
In future blog posts we return to the results of the meeting of the European Council 4 February 2011.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu brings you the posts from 737 Euroblogs, part of an emerging European public online space. Keep up to date and improve your language skills!
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my Euroblogs, which aim to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations. Internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes, upstream on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as usually downstream on the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. If you are interested in European business, politics or law, we can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn.
There are, in addition to fairly extensive references to documents, critical assessments of how the EU institutions work, as well as positive comments about praiseworthy efforts to get EU citizens on board.
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: EU General Affairs Council 31 January 2011 (30 January 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland, in Swedish: Egypten anslöjar EU:s utrikespolitik (Utrikesrådet 31 januari 2011) (31 January 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland, in Finnish: EU:n yleisten asioiden neuvosto valmisteli Eurooppa-nevoston kokousta 4. helmikuuta 2011 (1 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Miracle of European Council conclusions (4 February 2011) (2 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland, in Swedish: EU-rådet mörkar samordningen av ekonomisk politik och budgetpolitik (3 February 2011)
Grahnlaw: European Semester and Annual Growth Survey: Governance by mushroom principle (3 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: European Council 4 February 2011: Main issues (4 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: European Council 4 February 2011: Energy (4 February 2011)
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: European Council 4 February 2011: Eurozone solutions? (4 February 2011)
Eurooppaoikeus, in Finnish: Eurooppa 2030 -hanke: Haasteet ja mahdollisuudet (5 February 2011)
In future blog posts we return to the results of the meeting of the European Council 4 February 2011.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu brings you the posts from 737 Euroblogs, part of an emerging European public online space. Keep up to date and improve your language skills!
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my Euroblogs, which aim to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations. Internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes, upstream on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as usually downstream on the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. If you are interested in European business, politics or law, we can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
European Semester and Annual Growth Survey: Governance by mushroom principle
The impact of these heartening messages from president Herman Van Rompuy would be even more positive if the (European) Council did less to keep EU citizens in the dark.
Annual Growth Survey
When the Commission presented the ”clear direction on where Europe should be heading in the next year, with ten pressing actions focussed on macro-economic stability and fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and growth-enhancing measures” (IP/11/22), it told us that the Annual Growth Survey consists of different parts:
Finding the information
The first part, the communication from the Commission, is easy enough to find. On the legal portal Eur-Lex, 22 language versions are available, and among them in English:
Annual Growth Survey: advancing the EU's comprehensive response to the crisis; Brussels, 12.1.2010 COM(2011) 11 final (10 pages)
GAC: Findings and proposals
Monday, the General Affairs Council (GAC) took stock of implementation of the ”European Semester”, as a part of reformed EU economic governance. The Commission presented main findings of its first annual growth survey (Council document 18066/10) and the Hungarian presidency made proposals for implementation during the first part of the European Semester, while there is still need for added detail concerning the second phase, from 25 March 2011 (page 9):
3064th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 31 January 2011 (document 5640/11)
It did not seem to trouble the ministers that the proposals and draft proposals were not presented to the public.
If we search the Council website, only the first part of the package is public, i.e. the communication COM(2011) 11 (Council document 18066/11), although even here the Council caused a raised eyebrow. At some point, for some reason, the communication had been reclassified from ”Limite” to ”Public”, meaning it too had been under wraps.
The other parts of the annual growth survey, the annexes dated 14 January 2011, and which are of real public interest, are not accessible:
Annex 1 Progress report on Europe 2020
Annex 2 Macro-economic report
Annex 3 Draft joint employment report
So much for openness and transparency. Instead of stimulating discussion about real issues and mobilising engagement for EU2020 and other economic reforms Europe sorely needs, the Council inexplicably continues to apply the mushroom principle, keeping EU citizens in shit and in the dark: Belgian EU Council presidency legacy (6 January 2011).
Sancta simplicitas!
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union runs a fairly active blog, written in English by two officials, Urkuti György and Ódor Bálint. The two latest posts are relevant to the upcoming European Council meeting tomorrow, Friday.
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my Euroblogs, which aim to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations. Internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes, upstream on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as downstream on the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. If you are interested in European business, we can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn.
Annual Growth Survey
When the Commission presented the ”clear direction on where Europe should be heading in the next year, with ten pressing actions focussed on macro-economic stability and fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and growth-enhancing measures” (IP/11/22), it told us that the Annual Growth Survey consists of different parts:
1. Communication of the Commission: "Annual Growth Survey: towards a comprehensive response to the crisis".
The first part focuses on urgent key messages, which cover the fiscal, macro-economic and "thematic" areas. They represent a selection of issues, which should be addressed as a matter of priority by the Heads of State or Governments when they meet at the March European Council.
2. Progress Report on Europe 2020
It reviews the situation as regards the EU headline targets, the draft NRPs and the reform path envisaged by the Member States.
3. Macro-economic Report
It provides the macro-economic outlook and pinpoints measures that have the highest potential of delivering positive growth-enhancing effects.
4. Joint Employment Report
It reviews the employment situation and labour market related policies. It is also the basis for the "Joint Employment Report", to be adopted jointly by the Commission and the Council in accordance with article 148.5 (TFUE).
The Annual Growth Survey is accompanied by a:
5. Proposal for a Council Decision on employment guidelines.
This is a technical extension of the Employment guidelines adopted only a few months ago, to comply with a legal obligation of adopting such guidelines annually.
Finding the information
The first part, the communication from the Commission, is easy enough to find. On the legal portal Eur-Lex, 22 language versions are available, and among them in English:
Annual Growth Survey: advancing the EU's comprehensive response to the crisis; Brussels, 12.1.2010 COM(2011) 11 final (10 pages)
GAC: Findings and proposals
Monday, the General Affairs Council (GAC) took stock of implementation of the ”European Semester”, as a part of reformed EU economic governance. The Commission presented main findings of its first annual growth survey (Council document 18066/10) and the Hungarian presidency made proposals for implementation during the first part of the European Semester, while there is still need for added detail concerning the second phase, from 25 March 2011 (page 9):
3064th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 31 January 2011 (document 5640/11)
It did not seem to trouble the ministers that the proposals and draft proposals were not presented to the public.
If we search the Council website, only the first part of the package is public, i.e. the communication COM(2011) 11 (Council document 18066/11), although even here the Council caused a raised eyebrow. At some point, for some reason, the communication had been reclassified from ”Limite” to ”Public”, meaning it too had been under wraps.
The other parts of the annual growth survey, the annexes dated 14 January 2011, and which are of real public interest, are not accessible:
Annex 1 Progress report on Europe 2020
Annex 2 Macro-economic report
Annex 3 Draft joint employment report
So much for openness and transparency. Instead of stimulating discussion about real issues and mobilising engagement for EU2020 and other economic reforms Europe sorely needs, the Council inexplicably continues to apply the mushroom principle, keeping EU citizens in shit and in the dark: Belgian EU Council presidency legacy (6 January 2011).
Sancta simplicitas!
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union runs a fairly active blog, written in English by two officials, Urkuti György and Ódor Bálint. The two latest posts are relevant to the upcoming European Council meeting tomorrow, Friday.
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my Euroblogs, which aim to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations. Internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes, upstream on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as downstream on the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. If you are interested in European business, we can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Immaculate conception of the European Council 4 February 2011
Ahead of the European Council ”summit” on Friday, 4 February 2011, we looked at the preparatory General Affairs Council (GAC) in the blog post: An energetic and innovative European Council? (29 January 2011).
Yesterday the foreign ministers and the ministers for Europe representing the EU member states laboured to bring us the following conclusions, currently available only in English:
3064th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 31 January 2011 (asiakirja 5640/11)
(I have published some general GAC remarks in Finnish.)
Ensuring follow-up
According to Article 16(6) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), the General Affairs Council shall ensure the follow-up of meetings of the meetings of the European Council...
Yesterday's GAC left us with this memorable, elegant and enlightening sentence concerning the follow-up to the December 2010 meeting (page 8):
No need to burden the public with any explanations, clarifications, document references or links to relevant documents.
St Matthew knew: Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.
***
Just in passing, let it be known that the Council has provided us with an additional opportunity to ascertain the decisions to be followed in the first place. They have published, in English:
The European Council in 2010 (about 46 pages)
In the introductory part, president Herman Van Rompuy discusses the work of the European Council in 2010. The second part contains the conclusions of the six meetings in 2010, all conveniently in one place. The conclusions of the December meeting duly begin on page 42 for us to read.
The publication is available in Dutch, French and German as well.
Readers of other languages still find the conclusions on the web pages of the (European) Council, as before.
Preparation
Coordination and preparation are the GAC tasks indicated first in Article 16(6) TEU, so let us turn to the preparatory contribution yesterday: Preparation of the February meeting.
The first sentence of the conclusions of the General Affairs Council admirably bring us 'in medias res' (page 8):
If we fast-forward to the concluding sentence, leaving out the chaff in between, we may marvel at:
Despite drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, this is probably as close as you ever get to the miracle of transubstantiation or the immaculate conception in temporal affairs. Miraculously the immaterial draft conclusions turn into revised draft conclusions, unseen by the 'profanum vulgus', untouched by any agent.
Never mind that you would expect the proposals going in to the most important official institution of the European Union to be public knowledge and openly discussed well before the decisions, even guidelines, affecting 501 million people are taken.
Evidently, good governance does not start at the top.
As long as the European Council acts like a summit, the General Affairs Council remains a joke.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Blenderlaw is the enjoyable legal blog with a transnational twist, written by Caronline Bradley.
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my Euroblogs. The internal market and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes, upstream on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as downstream on the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. We can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn, too.
Yesterday the foreign ministers and the ministers for Europe representing the EU member states laboured to bring us the following conclusions, currently available only in English:
3064th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 31 January 2011 (asiakirja 5640/11)
(I have published some general GAC remarks in Finnish.)
Ensuring follow-up
According to Article 16(6) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), the General Affairs Council shall ensure the follow-up of meetings of the meetings of the European Council...
Yesterday's GAC left us with this memorable, elegant and enlightening sentence concerning the follow-up to the December 2010 meeting (page 8):
The Council took stock of the follow-up being given to the European Council's meeting on 16 and 17 December.
No need to burden the public with any explanations, clarifications, document references or links to relevant documents.
St Matthew knew: Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.
***
Just in passing, let it be known that the Council has provided us with an additional opportunity to ascertain the decisions to be followed in the first place. They have published, in English:
The European Council in 2010 (about 46 pages)
In the introductory part, president Herman Van Rompuy discusses the work of the European Council in 2010. The second part contains the conclusions of the six meetings in 2010, all conveniently in one place. The conclusions of the December meeting duly begin on page 42 for us to read.
The publication is available in Dutch, French and German as well.
Readers of other languages still find the conclusions on the web pages of the (European) Council, as before.
Preparation
Coordination and preparation are the GAC tasks indicated first in Article 16(6) TEU, so let us turn to the preparatory contribution yesterday: Preparation of the February meeting.
The first sentence of the conclusions of the General Affairs Council admirably bring us 'in medias res' (page 8):
The Council examined the draft conclusions for the European Council meeting to be held in Brussels on 4 February.
If we fast-forward to the concluding sentence, leaving out the chaff in between, we may marvel at:
Revised draft conclusions will be submitted to the European Council.
Despite drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, this is probably as close as you ever get to the miracle of transubstantiation or the immaculate conception in temporal affairs. Miraculously the immaterial draft conclusions turn into revised draft conclusions, unseen by the 'profanum vulgus', untouched by any agent.
Never mind that you would expect the proposals going in to the most important official institution of the European Union to be public knowledge and openly discussed well before the decisions, even guidelines, affecting 501 million people are taken.
Evidently, good governance does not start at the top.
As long as the European Council acts like a summit, the General Affairs Council remains a joke.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Blenderlaw is the enjoyable legal blog with a transnational twist, written by Caronline Bradley.
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my Euroblogs. The internal market and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes, upstream on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as downstream on the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. We can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn, too.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
An energetic and innovative European Council?
The European Council has a rendezvous with energy and innovation 4 February 2011 in Brussels, but can we expect the institution to become energetic and innovative? The meeting web page only reiterates the information contained in the annotated draft agenda, dated 7 December 2010, without offering added wisdom (Council document 17163/10).
Before the European Council, the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) and the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC) are going to meet, both Monday 31 January 2011.
Let us take a look at the quality of the advance information for the coordinating GAC meeting.
GAC background
The background note prepared by the Council press office for the General Affairs Council 31 January 2011 offers a summary on the first page and more detail on the following three pages.
The draft conclusions for the European Council are kept under wraps, but the texts tells us something about the items to be discussed.
Much real world interest hangs on the eurozone, but here little is on offer.
However, if the Council had wanted to be really service minded, it could have provided journalists and other interested people with direct and clear references and links to perhaps ten or twelve of the relevant documents.
Some things are better done once centrally, than hundreds of times in a dispersed manner.
Hungarian Council presidency
The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union offers a brief page with the main items of the General Affairs Council.
In addition, the GAC page links to related news and pages, such as a description of the GAC and the priorities of the Hungarian presidency, the recent meeting of ministers and state secretaries for EU affairs, the launch of the first ”European Semester” for synchronised economic policy coordination, the development of European Roma policy and the strategy for the Danube Region (with further links leading to the communication from the Commission COM(2010) 715 final). Of course, it might be a good idea to link to the Eur-Lex page with all the available language versions.
There is a link to a GAC agenda dated 27 January 2011 and to the Council background note I mentioned earlier.
On the whole, the Hungarian presidency presents the advance information in a structured and fairly detailed manner, although using generic texts. Until now the General Affairs Council has been treated as a step-child, so this is still pretty good in comparison. Better presentation and preparation at the GAC stage should improve communication (including reception) at the European Council meeting, although energetic and innovative may be a lot to ask for.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you think that there are differences between how Members of the European Parliament and domestic politicians use the web? Fleishman-Hillard's second European Parliament Digital Trends Survey reports on MEPs. You can discuss #epdigitrends on Twitter.
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my blogs. The internal market and the Europe 2020 strategy (flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. We can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn, too.
Before the European Council, the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) and the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC) are going to meet, both Monday 31 January 2011.
Let us take a look at the quality of the advance information for the coordinating GAC meeting.
GAC background
The background note prepared by the Council press office for the General Affairs Council 31 January 2011 offers a summary on the first page and more detail on the following three pages.
The draft conclusions for the European Council are kept under wraps, but the texts tells us something about the items to be discussed.
Much real world interest hangs on the eurozone, but here little is on offer.
However, if the Council had wanted to be really service minded, it could have provided journalists and other interested people with direct and clear references and links to perhaps ten or twelve of the relevant documents.
Some things are better done once centrally, than hundreds of times in a dispersed manner.
Hungarian Council presidency
The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union offers a brief page with the main items of the General Affairs Council.
In addition, the GAC page links to related news and pages, such as a description of the GAC and the priorities of the Hungarian presidency, the recent meeting of ministers and state secretaries for EU affairs, the launch of the first ”European Semester” for synchronised economic policy coordination, the development of European Roma policy and the strategy for the Danube Region (with further links leading to the communication from the Commission COM(2010) 715 final). Of course, it might be a good idea to link to the Eur-Lex page with all the available language versions.
There is a link to a GAC agenda dated 27 January 2011 and to the Council background note I mentioned earlier.
On the whole, the Hungarian presidency presents the advance information in a structured and fairly detailed manner, although using generic texts. Until now the General Affairs Council has been treated as a step-child, so this is still pretty good in comparison. Better presentation and preparation at the GAC stage should improve communication (including reception) at the European Council meeting, although energetic and innovative may be a lot to ask for.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you think that there are differences between how Members of the European Parliament and domestic politicians use the web? Fleishman-Hillard's second European Parliament Digital Trends Survey reports on MEPs. You can discuss #epdigitrends on Twitter.
P.S. 2: I am happy if you want to read my blogs. The internal market and the Europe 2020 strategy (flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes on Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. We can get acquainted on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn, too.
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
EU Council: Why keep EU2020 implementation report secret? (Updated)
Yesterday I tried to follow single market developments and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020) by publishing two blog posts on Grahnlaw Suomi Finland:
EU Competitiveness Council on Single Market Act
Latest on Europe 2020 strategy
In the later post I mentioned the follow-up from the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union:
General Affairs Council
Today, 15 December 2010, we go to the press release from the GAC:
3060th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 14 December 2010 (Council document 17871/10)
On page 26 we find the Europe 2020 strategy (interesting in itself and relevant to the Single Market Act). I regret to say that my hope for publication was dashed:
Meaning of openness?
I understand if the European Council wants to prevent its conclusions from being published ahead of time (although a greater problem would seem to be how to get even a few people to read them voluntarily at any time, i.e. without duty and salary).
But why on earth does the Council keep this report on implementation under wraps? Is not this implementation report o typical example of a document which could promote informed discussion about the grand strategy of the European Union for the decade until 2020?
Is it not important for openness (transparency) that the public is informed about facts and proposals before they are discussed officially and possible decisions (even if dull conclusions) are taken, especially by the most influential institution of the EU?
Update early hours 17 December 2010: Europe 2020 Strategy - Implementation report, addressed to the General Affairs Council (7 December 2010, document 17574/10) is still not accessible on the Council website.
Update two, 17 December 2010: Somehow, I feel that the lack of openness and response ties in with what Jon Worth wrote about the precipitated taking down of the #EUCO Twitter wall yesterday evening.
Update three, 30 December 2010: Sadly, in the dying days of the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union, the EU2020 implementation report 17574/10 of 7 December and 17574/1/10 REV 1 of 13 December 2010 are still not accessible to the public.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Michael Geist's Blog tries to keep the interests of netizens and users at the forefront in a world where the critical distance between copyright lobbies on the one hand, and national governments and EU institutions on the other hand, still seems to be negligible.
EU Competitiveness Council on Single Market Act
Latest on Europe 2020 strategy
In the later post I mentioned the follow-up from the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union:
The document in question is probably 'Europe 2020 Strategy - Implementation report' (dated 7 December 2010, Council document 17574/10), sadly not public at this moment, but hopefully it will be published with the GAC conclusions today.
General Affairs Council
Today, 15 December 2010, we go to the press release from the GAC:
3060th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 14 December 2010 (Council document 17871/10)
On page 26 we find the Europe 2020 strategy (interesting in itself and relevant to the Single Market Act). I regret to say that my hope for publication was dashed:
EUROPE 2020 STRATEGY FOR JOBS AND GROWTH
The Council took note of a report from the presidency on implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy for jobs and growth. --- The report will be submitted to the European Council with a view to its meeting on 16 and 17 December. It provides an overview of work undertaken since Europe 2020 was launched in June.
Meaning of openness?
I understand if the European Council wants to prevent its conclusions from being published ahead of time (although a greater problem would seem to be how to get even a few people to read them voluntarily at any time, i.e. without duty and salary).
But why on earth does the Council keep this report on implementation under wraps? Is not this implementation report o typical example of a document which could promote informed discussion about the grand strategy of the European Union for the decade until 2020?
Is it not important for openness (transparency) that the public is informed about facts and proposals before they are discussed officially and possible decisions (even if dull conclusions) are taken, especially by the most influential institution of the EU?
Update early hours 17 December 2010: Europe 2020 Strategy - Implementation report, addressed to the General Affairs Council (7 December 2010, document 17574/10) is still not accessible on the Council website.
Update two, 17 December 2010: Somehow, I feel that the lack of openness and response ties in with what Jon Worth wrote about the precipitated taking down of the #EUCO Twitter wall yesterday evening.
Update three, 30 December 2010: Sadly, in the dying days of the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union, the EU2020 implementation report 17574/10 of 7 December and 17574/1/10 REV 1 of 13 December 2010 are still not accessible to the public.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Michael Geist's Blog tries to keep the interests of netizens and users at the forefront in a world where the critical distance between copyright lobbies on the one hand, and national governments and EU institutions on the other hand, still seems to be negligible.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
European value added - EU General Affairs Council style
Where did we leave the EU's General Affairs Council (GAC)?
Potentially influential, but sandwiched in between the other Council configurations and the European Council, largely with the wrong participants based on redundant thinking in many capitals and with conclusions of anaemic pallor: EU General Affairs Council has taken note – So have we (24 November 2010).
Commission Work Programme for 2011
We return to the provisional conclusions of the GAC:
Press release, 3047th Council meeting, General Affairs, Brussels, 22 November 2010 (document 16572/10)
In addition to the English version, the GAC conclusions can be found in Dutch and French.
The entire page 9 is dedicated to the Commission's Work Programme for 2011 (CWP 2011), and the GAC is the coordinating spider in the web, as described earlier, so let us give you the text in full for your enlightenment:
For the sake of fairness, let me add that the document number and the ADD 1 are links in the original.
So much for European added value.
CWP 2011 documents
Published 27 October 2010, the CWP 2011 documents in question are:
Commission Work Programme 2011 VOLUME I - Commission document COM(2010) 623 final - VOLUME I (Council document 15772/10) (12 pages)
Commission Work Programme 2011 VOLUME II - Commission document COM(2010) 623 final - VOLUME II (Council document 15772/10 ADD 1) (43 pages)
What should I say?
Four weeks on from publication, eager Europeans have been offered links to these public documents as numbered by the Council.
We are none the wiser with regard to the views about the choice of priorities, possible consensus, simmering tensions etc.
European added value?
Zilch.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. You don't have to be able to read Swedish in order to understand how the thematic portal Europaportalen.se offers a rich fare of news, links and debate concerning European issues, from domestic sources as well as from ”Brussels”. Europaportalen.se is a jointly owned by the main trade unions and the confederation of industry in Sweden. How about making it possible elsewhere in the European Union?
Potentially influential, but sandwiched in between the other Council configurations and the European Council, largely with the wrong participants based on redundant thinking in many capitals and with conclusions of anaemic pallor: EU General Affairs Council has taken note – So have we (24 November 2010).
Commission Work Programme for 2011
We return to the provisional conclusions of the GAC:
Press release, 3047th Council meeting, General Affairs, Brussels, 22 November 2010 (document 16572/10)
In addition to the English version, the GAC conclusions can be found in Dutch and French.
The entire page 9 is dedicated to the Commission's Work Programme for 2011 (CWP 2011), and the GAC is the coordinating spider in the web, as described earlier, so let us give you the text in full for your enlightenment:
COMMISSION WORK PROGRAMME FOR 2011
The Council took note of the presentation by the Commission of its work programme for 2011 (doc.
15772/10 + ADD 1).
For the sake of fairness, let me add that the document number and the ADD 1 are links in the original.
So much for European added value.
CWP 2011 documents
Published 27 October 2010, the CWP 2011 documents in question are:
Commission Work Programme 2011 VOLUME I - Commission document COM(2010) 623 final - VOLUME I (Council document 15772/10) (12 pages)
Commission Work Programme 2011 VOLUME II - Commission document COM(2010) 623 final - VOLUME II (Council document 15772/10 ADD 1) (43 pages)
What should I say?
Four weeks on from publication, eager Europeans have been offered links to these public documents as numbered by the Council.
We are none the wiser with regard to the views about the choice of priorities, possible consensus, simmering tensions etc.
European added value?
Zilch.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. You don't have to be able to read Swedish in order to understand how the thematic portal Europaportalen.se offers a rich fare of news, links and debate concerning European issues, from domestic sources as well as from ”Brussels”. Europaportalen.se is a jointly owned by the main trade unions and the confederation of industry in Sweden. How about making it possible elsewhere in the European Union?
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
EU General Affairs Council has taken note – So have we
We have dealt with some aspects at least loosely related to the General Affairs Council (GAC).
We started by looking at the advance information about the meeting: EU General Affairs Council 22 November 2010: What do we know? (22 November 2010). - Not much and scant hope of major improvement is the short answer.
The following blog post revealed the current limits of machine translation from Finnish into other European languages. The theme could be described as “institutionalism with a human face”, and the entry commended the work of pioneering web editors and media teams in the EU institutions who have grasped the meaning of “social” in social media. These “pockets of excellence” show the way towards interaction to other actors in the public sector. The post also noted some of the trailblazers among government ministers who participated in the GAC or FAC meeting: Ihmiskasvoinen Euroopan unioni? Verkkotiedottajat ja #some (23 November 2010).
The third post based its reflections on the GAC conclusions:
Press release, 3047th Council meeting, General Affairs, Brussels, 22 November 2010 (document 16572/10)
This time the post was in Swedish, and it asked if the member states have understood that the European Union policies and internal actions are not ”foreign affairs” (any more). Why are many of the member states still represented by their foreign minister? Why are many ministers for Europe still housed in the foreign ministry (and as junior ministers), instead of in the prime minister's office?: EU: Har rådet för allmänna frågor fel medlemmar? (24 November 2010).
Potentially the General Affairs Council could be important, through coordination of the work of all other Council configurations as well as preparation and follow-up of the meetings of the European Council.
In practice, we do not have to exaggerate much to say that the GAC repeatedly “took note of a note”.
We have duly taken note.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. I am happy to see that the Spanish version Europa451.es and the Italian Europa451.it of the collective blog are alive and kicking as Euroblogs, and they keep up the @Europa451 presence on Twitter as well.
We started by looking at the advance information about the meeting: EU General Affairs Council 22 November 2010: What do we know? (22 November 2010). - Not much and scant hope of major improvement is the short answer.
The following blog post revealed the current limits of machine translation from Finnish into other European languages. The theme could be described as “institutionalism with a human face”, and the entry commended the work of pioneering web editors and media teams in the EU institutions who have grasped the meaning of “social” in social media. These “pockets of excellence” show the way towards interaction to other actors in the public sector. The post also noted some of the trailblazers among government ministers who participated in the GAC or FAC meeting: Ihmiskasvoinen Euroopan unioni? Verkkotiedottajat ja #some (23 November 2010).
The third post based its reflections on the GAC conclusions:
Press release, 3047th Council meeting, General Affairs, Brussels, 22 November 2010 (document 16572/10)
This time the post was in Swedish, and it asked if the member states have understood that the European Union policies and internal actions are not ”foreign affairs” (any more). Why are many of the member states still represented by their foreign minister? Why are many ministers for Europe still housed in the foreign ministry (and as junior ministers), instead of in the prime minister's office?: EU: Har rådet för allmänna frågor fel medlemmar? (24 November 2010).
Potentially the General Affairs Council could be important, through coordination of the work of all other Council configurations as well as preparation and follow-up of the meetings of the European Council.
In practice, we do not have to exaggerate much to say that the GAC repeatedly “took note of a note”.
We have duly taken note.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. I am happy to see that the Spanish version Europa451.es and the Italian Europa451.it of the collective blog are alive and kicking as Euroblogs, and they keep up the @Europa451 presence on Twitter as well.
Sunday, 13 June 2010
EU General Affairs Council 14 June 2010 background note
The previous blog entry, EU General Affairs Council 14 June 2010, showed us that the bare bones agenda for a Council meeting, in this case the General Affairs Council (GAC), is far from a rich basis for informed public debate about real issues.
For instance, the words “European Council, Brussels, 17 June 2010” refer to the whole summit: draft conclusions, possible statements and perhaps scores of underlying reports and documents. Europe’s actions to create jobs and growth and to put its public finances in order are only some of the “trifles” the June 17 summit is supposed to lead on, aided by enlightened citizens.
Background notes may be more helpful, although their quality varies. Let us take a look.
The GAC background note presents issues in general terms and without references or links to relevant documents. For people who follow EU affairs, such as the journalists probably intended to be the primary recipients, it can serve as a check-list to tick off various items, but it is pretty worthless as a source of information.
The Council’s standards of governance and its will to communicate are far from impressive in a union in which “decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen”.
About 16:00 local time, the Council is going to hold a public debate on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), for those who are interested in this “innovation” with limited scope.
Other public information
During the Swedish Council presidency, the materials ahead of the meetings were sometimes informative, useful and easy to navigate from generalities to more detailed information. My impression is that the quality has lapsed with Spain at the Council helm, although there have been a few positive exceptions.
Now the Swedish government’s web page on the GAC meeting is as bland as the paper from the Council.
Traditionally, the government of Sweden offers an annotated agenda ahead of each Council meeting (Kommenterad dagordning), naturally in Swedish. Even if cautious and general in tone, the four page note by the Swedish representation in Brussels names a few issues actually being discussed.
The Finnish government published a fairly general press release about the GAC meeting, in Finnish, Swedish and English.
***
Second order elections, third order public information, fourth order debate and fifth order participation seem to be the stuff the “democratic life of the Union” is made of.
Ralf Grahn
For instance, the words “European Council, Brussels, 17 June 2010” refer to the whole summit: draft conclusions, possible statements and perhaps scores of underlying reports and documents. Europe’s actions to create jobs and growth and to put its public finances in order are only some of the “trifles” the June 17 summit is supposed to lead on, aided by enlightened citizens.
Background notes may be more helpful, although their quality varies. Let us take a look.
The GAC background note presents issues in general terms and without references or links to relevant documents. For people who follow EU affairs, such as the journalists probably intended to be the primary recipients, it can serve as a check-list to tick off various items, but it is pretty worthless as a source of information.
The Council’s standards of governance and its will to communicate are far from impressive in a union in which “decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen”.
About 16:00 local time, the Council is going to hold a public debate on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), for those who are interested in this “innovation” with limited scope.
Other public information
During the Swedish Council presidency, the materials ahead of the meetings were sometimes informative, useful and easy to navigate from generalities to more detailed information. My impression is that the quality has lapsed with Spain at the Council helm, although there have been a few positive exceptions.
Now the Swedish government’s web page on the GAC meeting is as bland as the paper from the Council.
Traditionally, the government of Sweden offers an annotated agenda ahead of each Council meeting (Kommenterad dagordning), naturally in Swedish. Even if cautious and general in tone, the four page note by the Swedish representation in Brussels names a few issues actually being discussed.
The Finnish government published a fairly general press release about the GAC meeting, in Finnish, Swedish and English.
***
Second order elections, third order public information, fourth order debate and fifth order participation seem to be the stuff the “democratic life of the Union” is made of.
Ralf Grahn
EU General Affairs Council 14 June 2010
The General Affairs Council (GAC) shall ensure consistency in the work of different Council configurations. It shall prepare and ensure the follow-up to meetings of the European Council, in liaison with the President of the European Council and the Commission (Article 16(6) TEU).
Coordination, preparation and follow-up
Article 2 of the Rules of Procedure of the Council adds some detail to how the GAC is intended to coordinate policies and to prepare the European Council meetings, with a final GAC meeting within five days of a coming summit, as a rule preventing later discussion by other Council formations on items on the European Council’s agenda.
Even if the GAC tasks seem to cover all policy areas, it continues to meet in parallel with the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC). Thus, the coordinating role of the GAC is probably negligible with regard to the EU’s external action. (Cf. Article 2(5) of the Rules of Procedure.)
The GAC also follows up the guidelines, conclusions and decisions by the European Council.
GAC agenda 14 June 2010
The General Affairs Council will meet Monday, 14 June 2010 in Luxembourg, where the Council meetings take place three months annually.
The items on the agenda are:
The European Council meets Thursday, 17 June 2010.
Ralf Grahn
Coordination, preparation and follow-up
Article 2 of the Rules of Procedure of the Council adds some detail to how the GAC is intended to coordinate policies and to prepare the European Council meetings, with a final GAC meeting within five days of a coming summit, as a rule preventing later discussion by other Council formations on items on the European Council’s agenda.
Even if the GAC tasks seem to cover all policy areas, it continues to meet in parallel with the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC). Thus, the coordinating role of the GAC is probably negligible with regard to the EU’s external action. (Cf. Article 2(5) of the Rules of Procedure.)
The GAC also follows up the guidelines, conclusions and decisions by the European Council.
GAC agenda 14 June 2010
The General Affairs Council will meet Monday, 14 June 2010 in Luxembourg, where the Council meetings take place three months annually.
The items on the agenda are:
Non-legislative activities
- European Council, Brussels, 17 June 2010
- EEAS [European External Action Service]
- Strategic Report of 2010 by the Commission on the Implementation of the Cohesion Policy Programmes (Presentation by the Commission; Council conclusions)
- Outermost Regions (Presentation by the Commission of the 2010 Forum for Outermost Europe, Brussels, 27/28 May 2010; Council conclusions)
Legislative deliberations
- European Citizens' Initiative (General Approach)
The European Council meets Thursday, 17 June 2010.
Ralf Grahn
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Near Nada: EU General Affairs Council 25 January 2010
The quantity and quality of information ahead of the General Affairs Council meeting Monday 25 January 2010 is derisory.
The agenda tells us that the ministers will be occupied between 10:00 and 15:00 hearing and discussing one agenda item, the Spanish presidency programme.
Although I am convinced that the governments of the EU member states have studied the programme carefully, nobody was gracious enough to add a link to the document in this public information, so I will do it:
The Programme for the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 1 January – 30 June 2010
In a few paragraphs, the one page background note runs through some of the headline level activities during the first six months of this year, without adding anything of interest or value for those who follow EU affairs.
No additional items, supporting documents, links – nada.
Still, let us savour the last paragraph before the obligatory press conference:
I fully support the noble aim of fostering close links with the citizens of the EU and building our support and involvement.
How about decent advance information – for a start?
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The UK is a heavyweight among EU member states, and Charlemagne’s notebook (The Economist) offers a gateway to some shades of important British thought about European integration.
Charlemagne’s notebook is listed with more than 500 great Euroblogs on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, policies, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.
By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.
The agenda tells us that the ministers will be occupied between 10:00 and 15:00 hearing and discussing one agenda item, the Spanish presidency programme.
Although I am convinced that the governments of the EU member states have studied the programme carefully, nobody was gracious enough to add a link to the document in this public information, so I will do it:
The Programme for the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 1 January – 30 June 2010
In a few paragraphs, the one page background note runs through some of the headline level activities during the first six months of this year, without adding anything of interest or value for those who follow EU affairs.
No additional items, supporting documents, links – nada.
Still, let us savour the last paragraph before the obligatory press conference:
For the Union to enhance its global role and influence it needs to foster close links with its citizens and build their support and involvement. To this end, the Spanish Presidency aims to strengthen the rights, civil liberties and security of Europe's citizens and promote real equality between men and women.
I fully support the noble aim of fostering close links with the citizens of the EU and building our support and involvement.
How about decent advance information – for a start?
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The UK is a heavyweight among EU member states, and Charlemagne’s notebook (The Economist) offers a gateway to some shades of important British thought about European integration.
Charlemagne’s notebook is listed with more than 500 great Euroblogs on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, policies, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.
By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Implementing the Lisbon Treaty (Swedish report)
Grahnlaw has called on the Swedish Council presidency to report on the implementation of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. This has now happened in the form of an implementation report, submitted to the European Council meeting Thursday 10 and Friday 11 December 2009.
***
The General Affairs Council 7 December 2009 dealt with the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The GAC took note of a report from the presidency on progress in implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The report will be forwarded to the European Council (10 and 11 December) (17033/1/09 REV1).
Implementation report
The five page report lists the decisions taken by the European Council and the Council on 1 December 2009 and published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The initial presentation on Grahnlaw:
Grahnlaw: Lisbon Treaty implementation – first day (1 December 2009)
Published and commented
The decisions adopted on 1 December are the following:
• Decisions adopted by the European Council:
- European Council Decision adopting its Rules of Procedure
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/51
Grahnlaw: European Council’s new Rules of Procedure (3 December 2009)
Grahnlaw: European Council’s Rules of Procedure (Contents: Articles 1 to 3) (3 December 2009)
Grahnlaw: European Council’s Rules of Procedure (Contents: Articles 4 to 8) (7 December 2009)
Grahnlaw: Rules of Procedure of the European Council (Articles 9 to 14) (7 December 2009)
EU Law Blog: Rules of Procedure of the European Council (7 December 2009)
***
- European Council Decision electing the President of the European Council
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/48
Grahnlaw: Herman Van Rompuy President of the European Council (official decision) (2 December 2009)
***
- European Council Decision taken with the agreement of the President of the Commission appointing the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/49
Grahnlaw: Catherine Ashton High Representative of the (European) Union (official decision) (2 December 2009)
***
- European Council Decision on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council
OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/50
Grahnlaw: EU Lisbon Treaty implementation: Presidency of the Council (7 December 2009)
***
• Decisions adopted by the Council:
- Decision of the Council (General Affairs) establishing the list of Council configurations in addition to those referred to in the second and third subparagraphs of Article 16(6) of the Treaty of the European Union
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/46
Grahnlaw: EU Council configurations (Lisbon Treaty implementation) (2 December 2009)
***
Road ahead
After this recapitulation, in future posts we are going to turn to the decisions not officially published by the date of the implementation report (4 December 2009) and not presented on this blog.
Thus, for future posts, we are going to present and comment on the following Council decisions mentioned in the Swedish report Implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon (document 17033/1/09 REV 1; page 3):
- Council Decision adopting the Council's Rules of Procedure (16525/09)
- Council Decision laying down measures for the implementation of the European Council Decision on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council (16517/09)
- Council Decision appointing the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union (16533/2/09)
- Council Decision laying down the conditions of employment for the President of the European Council (16519/09)
- Council Decision laying down the conditions of employment for the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (16521/09)
- Council Decision laying down the conditions of employment for the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union (16536/09)
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Growing, multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates 494 euroblogs. Blogs on EU affairs and policies can gain visibility, credibility and readers by joining our common European “village well” for facts, opinion and gossip.
***
The General Affairs Council 7 December 2009 dealt with the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The GAC took note of a report from the presidency on progress in implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The report will be forwarded to the European Council (10 and 11 December) (17033/1/09 REV1).
Implementation report
The five page report lists the decisions taken by the European Council and the Council on 1 December 2009 and published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The initial presentation on Grahnlaw:
Grahnlaw: Lisbon Treaty implementation – first day (1 December 2009)
Published and commented
The decisions adopted on 1 December are the following:
• Decisions adopted by the European Council:
- European Council Decision adopting its Rules of Procedure
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/51
Grahnlaw: European Council’s new Rules of Procedure (3 December 2009)
Grahnlaw: European Council’s Rules of Procedure (Contents: Articles 1 to 3) (3 December 2009)
Grahnlaw: European Council’s Rules of Procedure (Contents: Articles 4 to 8) (7 December 2009)
Grahnlaw: Rules of Procedure of the European Council (Articles 9 to 14) (7 December 2009)
EU Law Blog: Rules of Procedure of the European Council (7 December 2009)
***
- European Council Decision electing the President of the European Council
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/48
Grahnlaw: Herman Van Rompuy President of the European Council (official decision) (2 December 2009)
***
- European Council Decision taken with the agreement of the President of the Commission appointing the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/49
Grahnlaw: Catherine Ashton High Representative of the (European) Union (official decision) (2 December 2009)
***
- European Council Decision on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council
OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/50
Grahnlaw: EU Lisbon Treaty implementation: Presidency of the Council (7 December 2009)
***
• Decisions adopted by the Council:
- Decision of the Council (General Affairs) establishing the list of Council configurations in addition to those referred to in the second and third subparagraphs of Article 16(6) of the Treaty of the European Union
Published OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/46
Grahnlaw: EU Council configurations (Lisbon Treaty implementation) (2 December 2009)
***
Road ahead
After this recapitulation, in future posts we are going to turn to the decisions not officially published by the date of the implementation report (4 December 2009) and not presented on this blog.
Thus, for future posts, we are going to present and comment on the following Council decisions mentioned in the Swedish report Implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon (document 17033/1/09 REV 1; page 3):
- Council Decision adopting the Council's Rules of Procedure (16525/09)
- Council Decision laying down measures for the implementation of the European Council Decision on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council (16517/09)
- Council Decision appointing the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union (16533/2/09)
- Council Decision laying down the conditions of employment for the President of the European Council (16519/09)
- Council Decision laying down the conditions of employment for the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (16521/09)
- Council Decision laying down the conditions of employment for the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union (16536/09)
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Growing, multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates 494 euroblogs. Blogs on EU affairs and policies can gain visibility, credibility and readers by joining our common European “village well” for facts, opinion and gossip.
EU General Affairs Council results 7 to 8 December 2009
The conclusions of the 2984th meeting of the EU Council, General Affairs (GAC), on 7 December 2009 have now been posted on the Consilium web site (document 17217/09; 25 pages).
The GAC web page of the Swedish EU Council presidency has some information about the results of the meeting.
Monday’s general press release EU ministers prepared for the last summit under the Swedish EU presidency offered a brief recapitulation of the main issues. Tuesday’s press release EU concerned over lack of progress in Middle East peace process presented a summary of the foreign policy questions dealt with during the FAC meeting, as well as the enlargement issues dealt with by the GAC.
There are separate press releases on the financial package for the accession negotiations with Croatia, conclusions regarding a special report by the Court of Auditors, as well as a separate issue of the conclusions on the enlargement process.
***
Here are some highlights with personal reflections.
Foreign ministers
The Lisbon Treaty split the former General Affairs and External Relations Council configuration (GAERC) into two separate formations: the General Affairs Council (GAC) and the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).
In practice, the list of participants was dominated by ministers for foreign affairs, although in many cases accompanied by ministers or state secretaries for European affairs.
Was it because of the enlargement questions, or is this going to be the model, at least for the GAC meetings preparing the European Council?
If the foreign ministers become a permanent fixture, we can ask: What was the object of the Lisbon Treaty exercise?
European Council
The main task of the GAC was to prepare the meeting of the European Council Thursday 10 and Friday 11 December 2009. The draft conclusions will be reviewed by the Swedish Council presidency in the light of the GAC discussions (so no published document there to steal the limelight).
Presidency trio 2010 to 2011
The draft 18 month programme of the Council presidency trio of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, from 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2011, was presented and published (link to document 16771/09; 89 pages).
The first part of the programme presents the strategic framework, and the second part is the operational programme, which sets out practically every major policy issue expected to surface during the coming one and a half years.
Even if programmes and presidencies are sometimes overtaken by events, both Council and Commission programmes are worth reading for people with a serious interest in EU affairs.
Enlargement
The GAC adopted conclusions on the enlargement strategy, including individual statements on Turkey, Croatia, Iceland, and the Western Balkans.
Points 32 and 33 seem to indicate that the former Athenian Republic of the Greek peninsula (aka Hellenic Republic or Greece) is still blocking the start of accession negotiations for the Republic of Macedonia under its real name.
It is hard to say what is more absurd: stubborn Greek allegations that a historic name entails territorial claims, or Greece’s willingness to use veto powers against the opinion of the major part of the international community.
By the way, if and when all countries on the road to accession become EU members, the unanimity problems and the huge over-representation of the smallest member states will seriously hurt the European Union’s ambitions to speak with one voice in the world, and to act as one. The Lisbon Treaty is clearly inadequate as it is, but have our leaders told us that?
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself!
Growing, multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates 494 euroblogs, representing both national viewpoints and pan-European angles.
You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future. Please, do.
Blogs on EU affairs and European themes, by associations, networks, business interests or individuals, can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility, credibility and readers by proposing a new blog!
The GAC web page of the Swedish EU Council presidency has some information about the results of the meeting.
Monday’s general press release EU ministers prepared for the last summit under the Swedish EU presidency offered a brief recapitulation of the main issues. Tuesday’s press release EU concerned over lack of progress in Middle East peace process presented a summary of the foreign policy questions dealt with during the FAC meeting, as well as the enlargement issues dealt with by the GAC.
There are separate press releases on the financial package for the accession negotiations with Croatia, conclusions regarding a special report by the Court of Auditors, as well as a separate issue of the conclusions on the enlargement process.
***
Here are some highlights with personal reflections.
Foreign ministers
The Lisbon Treaty split the former General Affairs and External Relations Council configuration (GAERC) into two separate formations: the General Affairs Council (GAC) and the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).
In practice, the list of participants was dominated by ministers for foreign affairs, although in many cases accompanied by ministers or state secretaries for European affairs.
Was it because of the enlargement questions, or is this going to be the model, at least for the GAC meetings preparing the European Council?
If the foreign ministers become a permanent fixture, we can ask: What was the object of the Lisbon Treaty exercise?
European Council
The main task of the GAC was to prepare the meeting of the European Council Thursday 10 and Friday 11 December 2009. The draft conclusions will be reviewed by the Swedish Council presidency in the light of the GAC discussions (so no published document there to steal the limelight).
Presidency trio 2010 to 2011
The draft 18 month programme of the Council presidency trio of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, from 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2011, was presented and published (link to document 16771/09; 89 pages).
The first part of the programme presents the strategic framework, and the second part is the operational programme, which sets out practically every major policy issue expected to surface during the coming one and a half years.
Even if programmes and presidencies are sometimes overtaken by events, both Council and Commission programmes are worth reading for people with a serious interest in EU affairs.
Enlargement
The GAC adopted conclusions on the enlargement strategy, including individual statements on Turkey, Croatia, Iceland, and the Western Balkans.
Points 32 and 33 seem to indicate that the former Athenian Republic of the Greek peninsula (aka Hellenic Republic or Greece) is still blocking the start of accession negotiations for the Republic of Macedonia under its real name.
It is hard to say what is more absurd: stubborn Greek allegations that a historic name entails territorial claims, or Greece’s willingness to use veto powers against the opinion of the major part of the international community.
By the way, if and when all countries on the road to accession become EU members, the unanimity problems and the huge over-representation of the smallest member states will seriously hurt the European Union’s ambitions to speak with one voice in the world, and to act as one. The Lisbon Treaty is clearly inadequate as it is, but have our leaders told us that?
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself!
Growing, multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates 494 euroblogs, representing both national viewpoints and pan-European angles.
You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future. Please, do.
Blogs on EU affairs and European themes, by associations, networks, business interests or individuals, can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility, credibility and readers by proposing a new blog!
Saturday, 5 December 2009
EU Foreign Affairs Council 8 December 2009
For the first time, the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) meets as a separate Council configuration on Tuesday 8 December 2009, although the ministers kick off by meeting the new High Representative already on Monday. (The other configuration mentioned in the Lisbon Treaty is the General Affairs Council (GAC), which convenes on Monday.)
The provisional agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council offers a bare outline. The background note prepared by the Council presents a few thorny questions to be discussed – Western Balkans, Middle East, Iran, Other issues – but little of substance.
HR/VP Catherine Ashton
Given the dual character of Catherine Ashton’s job, she has a fledgling web page over at the Council.
The Commission has a new web page with the whole job title as headline: High Representative of the Union For Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Vice President of the European Commission.
Finnish government
Considering the brief Presidency and Council information given (above), the traditional pre-meeting press release of the Finnish government feels almost generous in comparison. It is available in Finnish, Swedish and English. Here is a link to the English version, as well as its contents:
EU Foreign Ministers to meet Ashton and discuss the Middle East
Swedish government
The Swedish government routinely publishes the agendas of EU Council meetings, with brief comments by the representation in Brussels. For the FAC meeting: Kommenterad dagordning för utrikesrådet den 7-8 december 2009.
As an addition to yesterday’s blog post on the upcoming meeting of the General Affairs Council, there is an agenda with comments for the GAC meeting. With the Lisbon Treaty in effect since 1 December 2009 and the European Council meeting around the corner, on 10 to 11 December 2009, important issues are to be discussed: Kommenterad dagording för rådet för allmänna frågor den 7 december 2009.
Danish government
The Danish government has prepared a more detailed combined memorandum on the GAC and FAC meetings for the Europe committee (Europaudvalget) of the Danish parliament (Folketinget): Rådsmøde (almindelige anliggender ogeksterne forbindelser) den 7.-8. december 2009 - Sammelnotat.
It may be worthwhile to take a closer look at the material available at the meeting of the Europe committee 3 December 2009.
EU journalists have sometimes said that their Danish colleagues are the best informed. Because this is public information in Denmark, interested citizens are able to follow EU affairs closely.
Other EU member states?
My guess is that Denmark is the benchmark with regard to parliamentary scrutiny and public information, but it would be interesting to see comments on how the governments in the EU member states inform their parliaments ahead of EU Council meetings and summits, and on the quality of public information on EU affairs available to citizens.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 488 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.
Blogs on EU affairs and European themes, by organisations or individuals, can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility and readers by proposing a new blog!
The provisional agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council offers a bare outline. The background note prepared by the Council presents a few thorny questions to be discussed – Western Balkans, Middle East, Iran, Other issues – but little of substance.
HR/VP Catherine Ashton
Given the dual character of Catherine Ashton’s job, she has a fledgling web page over at the Council.
The Commission has a new web page with the whole job title as headline: High Representative of the Union For Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Vice President of the European Commission.
Finnish government
Considering the brief Presidency and Council information given (above), the traditional pre-meeting press release of the Finnish government feels almost generous in comparison. It is available in Finnish, Swedish and English. Here is a link to the English version, as well as its contents:
EU Foreign Ministers to meet Ashton and discuss the Middle East
The Foreign Affairs Council of the EU will meet in Brussels on 8 December. The main topic on the agenda is the situation in the Middle East. On Monday, 7 December the Foreign Ministers will have a dinner meeting with Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will represent Finland at the meeting. After the Council meeting, Stubb will also attend the first Ministerial Meeting of the EU Eastern Partnership.
The Middle East peace process is on the Council’s agenda. The Foreign Ministers will discuss EU support for American efforts towards peace and the EU’s own role in the peace process. The difficult situation in East Jerusalem is also likely to be brought up. Finland considers that the EU should support Prime Minister Fayyad of the Palestinian National Authority in his efforts to build State structures and should remain firm with regard to Israel’s settlement policy. The Council is also expected to endorse conclusions on the subject.
The Foreign Ministers will also discuss the situation in Iran. In particular, the controversy over Iran’s nuclear programme will be raised, since Iran does not appear to be seriously committed to seeking a solution through negotiation. If negotiation does not lead to solution of the controversy over the nuclear programme, the tightening of sanctions against Iran will become topical. In such a situation, the primary solution in Finland’s view would be sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council. The European Council is expected to evaluate the situation in Iran. The Council will also endorse conclusions pertaining to Iraq.
The Ministers will discuss the Western Balkans, especially opening of the political deadlock in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Finland supports a solution that would enable closing of the OHR office as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s rapprochement with the EU. Conversion of the EUFOR Bosnia Althea operation to a training and support mission will also be brought up.
Arctic cooperation will also be on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council, and the Council is expected to endorse conclusions. Finland considers it important that an Arctic policy be created for the EU. In addition, the Council will endorse conclusions on the Horn of Africa, the South Caucasus, security work linked with climate change, the EU outlines to promote an international humanitarian law, human rights and democracy in third countries, relations between the EU and Latin America as well conclusions on the global role of the EU.
This will be the first meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in its new form. With the Lisbon Treaty, the General Affairs and External Relations Council of the EU has been divided into two different configurations; the General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council presided over by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Foreign Minister Stubb will also attend the General Affairs Council meeting on 7 December, because enlargement of the European Union will be on the agenda then.
Additional information: Leena-Kaisa Mikkola, Head of the Unit for European Common Foreign and Security Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5026 or mobile tel. +358 40 753 4364, and Päivi Pohjanheimo, Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5332 or mobile tel. +358 40 511 3786
Swedish government
The Swedish government routinely publishes the agendas of EU Council meetings, with brief comments by the representation in Brussels. For the FAC meeting: Kommenterad dagordning för utrikesrådet den 7-8 december 2009.
As an addition to yesterday’s blog post on the upcoming meeting of the General Affairs Council, there is an agenda with comments for the GAC meeting. With the Lisbon Treaty in effect since 1 December 2009 and the European Council meeting around the corner, on 10 to 11 December 2009, important issues are to be discussed: Kommenterad dagording för rådet för allmänna frågor den 7 december 2009.
Danish government
The Danish government has prepared a more detailed combined memorandum on the GAC and FAC meetings for the Europe committee (Europaudvalget) of the Danish parliament (Folketinget): Rådsmøde (almindelige anliggender ogeksterne forbindelser) den 7.-8. december 2009 - Sammelnotat.
It may be worthwhile to take a closer look at the material available at the meeting of the Europe committee 3 December 2009.
EU journalists have sometimes said that their Danish colleagues are the best informed. Because this is public information in Denmark, interested citizens are able to follow EU affairs closely.
Other EU member states?
My guess is that Denmark is the benchmark with regard to parliamentary scrutiny and public information, but it would be interesting to see comments on how the governments in the EU member states inform their parliaments ahead of EU Council meetings and summits, and on the quality of public information on EU affairs available to citizens.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 488 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.
Blogs on EU affairs and European themes, by organisations or individuals, can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility and readers by proposing a new blog!
Friday, 4 December 2009
EU General Affairs Council 7 December 2009
The Finnish government has published a customary press release with general information about an upcoming meeting of the Council of the European Union, this time the General Affairs Council on Monday, 7 December 2009. In addition to the Finnish and Swedish versions, there is one in English:
Government Communications Unit
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
4.12.2009 12.46
General Affairs Council to discuss European Council preparations and EU enlargement
The EU General Affairs Council (GAC) will meet in Brussels on Monday 7 December. Main themes of the meeting include preparations for the European Council, and EU enlargement. Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors and Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will represent Finland at the meeting.
With the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council was divided into two, forming the General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council. In accordance with the division of duties in the Government, the Minister of European Affairs and, in issues pertaining to enlargement, the Foreign Minister will represent Finland at the General Affairs Council.
Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the main function of the General Affairs Council is to prepare for European Council meetings. The December European Council is to focus on the Copenhagen conference on climate change. Finland aims at reaching an ambitious and comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen. The EU should decide on a clear negotiating mandate and establish a schedule that aims, as far as possible, at finalising a legally binding agreement within six months. It is particularly important to reach agreement on short-term climate finance. EU Heads of State or Government will also consider the issue of adopting a more stringent emission reduction target, and discuss the economic, financial and employment situation. The previous General Affairs Council made preparations for the European Council on further measures with regard to the Lisbon Strategy and on the Sustainable Development Strategy.
The Council is to adopt conclusions on EU membership candidates and the Western Balkan countries. In October, the Commission released its annual enlargement package including an enlargement strategy along with progress reports on candidate countries and potential candidate countries. Enlargement has strengthened democracy and promoted the development of rule of law in Europe. It has also increased the Union’s capabilities to respond to global challenges. Finland supports the conclusions of the Commission’s enlargement package and highlights the importance of keeping to the enlargement consensus adopted in 2006. Finland also supports the Commission's proposal to open accession negotiations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Ministers will be presented with the 18-month programme of the Council, prepared by Spain, Belgium and Hungary. The Union’s key challenges include further measures with regard to the Lisbon Strategy, the reform of financial supervision, the social agenda, and the implementation of the climate and energy package and that of the Stockholm Programme.
Further information: Sanna Ek, Adviser, EU Affairs, Government Secretariat for EU Affairs, tel. +358 9 1602 2150 and Juha Ottman, Director, Unit for EU Enlargement and Western Balkans, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5784
Swedish Presidency and Council
The web page of the Swedish presidency still bears the headline General Affairs and External Relations. It offers a presentation of the main issues at the General Affairs Council.
There are also links to the preliminary agenda of the GAC meeting and as well as a brief background note on the main issues.
***
Under the Lisbon Treaty, the General Affairs Council is the coordinating body ahead of European Council meetings, and the one ensure follow-up of decisions taken there. The Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) is the other Council configuration directly mentioned in the treaty.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 488 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.
Blogs by organisations or individuals on EU affairs and European themes can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility and readers by proposing a new blog.
Government Communications Unit
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
4.12.2009 12.46
General Affairs Council to discuss European Council preparations and EU enlargement
The EU General Affairs Council (GAC) will meet in Brussels on Monday 7 December. Main themes of the meeting include preparations for the European Council, and EU enlargement. Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors and Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will represent Finland at the meeting.
With the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council was divided into two, forming the General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council. In accordance with the division of duties in the Government, the Minister of European Affairs and, in issues pertaining to enlargement, the Foreign Minister will represent Finland at the General Affairs Council.
Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the main function of the General Affairs Council is to prepare for European Council meetings. The December European Council is to focus on the Copenhagen conference on climate change. Finland aims at reaching an ambitious and comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen. The EU should decide on a clear negotiating mandate and establish a schedule that aims, as far as possible, at finalising a legally binding agreement within six months. It is particularly important to reach agreement on short-term climate finance. EU Heads of State or Government will also consider the issue of adopting a more stringent emission reduction target, and discuss the economic, financial and employment situation. The previous General Affairs Council made preparations for the European Council on further measures with regard to the Lisbon Strategy and on the Sustainable Development Strategy.
The Council is to adopt conclusions on EU membership candidates and the Western Balkan countries. In October, the Commission released its annual enlargement package including an enlargement strategy along with progress reports on candidate countries and potential candidate countries. Enlargement has strengthened democracy and promoted the development of rule of law in Europe. It has also increased the Union’s capabilities to respond to global challenges. Finland supports the conclusions of the Commission’s enlargement package and highlights the importance of keeping to the enlargement consensus adopted in 2006. Finland also supports the Commission's proposal to open accession negotiations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Ministers will be presented with the 18-month programme of the Council, prepared by Spain, Belgium and Hungary. The Union’s key challenges include further measures with regard to the Lisbon Strategy, the reform of financial supervision, the social agenda, and the implementation of the climate and energy package and that of the Stockholm Programme.
Further information: Sanna Ek, Adviser, EU Affairs, Government Secretariat for EU Affairs, tel. +358 9 1602 2150 and Juha Ottman, Director, Unit for EU Enlargement and Western Balkans, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5784
Swedish Presidency and Council
The web page of the Swedish presidency still bears the headline General Affairs and External Relations. It offers a presentation of the main issues at the General Affairs Council.
There are also links to the preliminary agenda of the GAC meeting and as well as a brief background note on the main issues.
***
Under the Lisbon Treaty, the General Affairs Council is the coordinating body ahead of European Council meetings, and the one ensure follow-up of decisions taken there. The Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) is the other Council configuration directly mentioned in the treaty.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 488 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.
Blogs by organisations or individuals on EU affairs and European themes can join Bloggingportal.eu. Gain visibility and readers by proposing a new blog.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
European Council’s Rules of Procedure (Contents: Articles 1 to 3)
The new Rules of Procedure of the European Council are fairly short, 14 Articles on four pages. They build on the treaty provisions, while adding some detail outlining the work of the European Council, which has formally become an EU institution under the Lisbon Treaty.
The European Council sets the course for the European Union politically, and it makes certain decisions mentioned in the treaties, although it does not exercise legislative functions.
EUROPEAN COUNCIL DECISION of 1 December 2009 adopting its Rules of Procedure (2009/882/EU) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/51).
Main points
Here is an overview of the contents of the Rules of Procedure of the European Council, the first three Articles.
Article 1 Notice and venue of meetings: Ordinarily, the European Council is convened by its President to two meetings in Brussels during six months. Extraordinarily, the European Council can hold special meetings and meetings outside Brussels.
Article 2 Preparation for and follow-up to the proceedings of the European Council: The General Affairs Council is the coordinating Council configuration for the President and the European Council, and the GAC (still chaired by the rotating Presidency) is the main responsible for the follow-up to meetings.
Regular meetings and coordination are foreseen between the President, the rotating Presidency of the Council and the President of the Commission.
In case of vacancy or impediment, the President of the European Council is replaced by the member representing the rotating Presidency.
Article 3 Agenda and preparation: The President submits an annotated draft agenda to the General Affairs Council at least four weeks before each meeting of the European Council.
The other Council configurations shall forward their contributions to the GAC at least two weeks ahead of the European Council meeting.
The President prepares draft guidelines, conclusions and decisions of the European Council, for discussion in the GAC.
After a final GAC meeting, the President draws up the provisional agenda for the European Council.
Only exceptionally are other Council configurations allowed to discuss issues on the European Council’s agenda between the final GAC meeting and the European Council.
The final agenda is adopted by the European Council at the beginning of its meeting, and “surprise items” are generally not allowed.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 488 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.
The European Council sets the course for the European Union politically, and it makes certain decisions mentioned in the treaties, although it does not exercise legislative functions.
EUROPEAN COUNCIL DECISION of 1 December 2009 adopting its Rules of Procedure (2009/882/EU) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU 2.12.2009 L 315/51).
Main points
Here is an overview of the contents of the Rules of Procedure of the European Council, the first three Articles.
Article 1 Notice and venue of meetings: Ordinarily, the European Council is convened by its President to two meetings in Brussels during six months. Extraordinarily, the European Council can hold special meetings and meetings outside Brussels.
Article 2 Preparation for and follow-up to the proceedings of the European Council: The General Affairs Council is the coordinating Council configuration for the President and the European Council, and the GAC (still chaired by the rotating Presidency) is the main responsible for the follow-up to meetings.
Regular meetings and coordination are foreseen between the President, the rotating Presidency of the Council and the President of the Commission.
In case of vacancy or impediment, the President of the European Council is replaced by the member representing the rotating Presidency.
Article 3 Agenda and preparation: The President submits an annotated draft agenda to the General Affairs Council at least four weeks before each meeting of the European Council.
The other Council configurations shall forward their contributions to the GAC at least two weeks ahead of the European Council meeting.
The President prepares draft guidelines, conclusions and decisions of the European Council, for discussion in the GAC.
After a final GAC meeting, the President draws up the provisional agenda for the European Council.
Only exceptionally are other Council configurations allowed to discuss issues on the European Council’s agenda between the final GAC meeting and the European Council.
The final agenda is adopted by the European Council at the beginning of its meeting, and “surprise items” are generally not allowed.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 488 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page or concentrate on the editors’ choice of articles on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.
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