I wish at the outset to express my condemnation and revulsion at the murder in Iraq of a US civilian. The manner in which Mr. Nick Berg was murdered was particularly brutal and gruesome. I express my sincere condolences to his family and friends. Ireland also calls for the immediate safe release of all hostages in Iraq and for the ending of the vile practice of kidnapping.
I am pleased to have this opportunity to appear before the committee to review the agenda of the forthcoming General Affairs and External Relations Council, the fifth during the Irish Presidency. The Council will be chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen. The Minister for Defence, Deputy Michael Smith, will represent Ireland and participate in the Council. I propose to begin by saying a few words concerning the IGC ministerial meeting which will take place next Monday and Tuesday. I will then turn to the agenda items due for discussion at the Council. I am, of course, happy to take any questions which members may have on the forthcoming Council.
While the Minister for Foreign Affairs outlined the Presidency's proposed work programme and timetable for dealing with the IGC at last month's Council, this month's meeting will be the first opportunity for Foreign Ministers to have a substantive discussion of the IGC since the decision of the European Council to reconvene negotiations. Foreign Ministers will meet over two days to discuss the outstanding IGC issues in detail. The Presidency is currently finalising the agenda but it is likely that there will be discussions on outstanding institutional and non-institutional issues. The Presidency is also finalising a number of papers intended to facilitate discussion and these will be circulated to the committee when available.
The Taoiseach wrote to his colleagues on the European Council on 8 April asking them to take a positive and focused approach. This was very much in evidence at last week's meeting of senior officials. Members have been circulated with the working document which formed the basis for that meeting at which officials discussed the outstanding non-institutional issues and considerable progress was made. The Presidency believes that, while of course nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, consensus has been found on a significant number of these issues and hopes that next week's meeting of Foreign Ministers will confirm that consensus.
There are a number of other non-institutional issues that require further discussion at ministerial level and these will be set out in our papers to be published later this week. They include such issues as the procedures for adopting the Union's annual budget and decision-making in the Common Commercial Policy. Members will be aware of the Taoiseach's wish to make progress on as many issues as possible before negotiations return to the level of Heads of State and Government at the June European Council. We have decided to have a discussion on the scope of qualified majority voting to encourage progress on this difficult set of issues which is unlikely to be resolved until the end of the negotiations.
The Presidency also intends to have a discussion on the question of the composition of the European Commission. We know that a final solution to this issue will depend on the overall balance of the institutional package. Next week's meeting is an opportunity to build on the commitment displayed by partners at the Spring European Council and at the meeting of senior officials. Together with the tour of capitals currently being undertaken by the Taoiseach where he is meeting with all his counterparts on the European Council, we will seek to make significant progress towards agreement on a new constitutional treaty for the European Union.
The principal item for consideration on the Council's general affairs agenda will be preparations for the European Council due to take place in Brussels on 17 and 18 June. The items expected to feature on the draft annotated agenda include senior appointments, justice and home affairs issues, terrorism, enlargement, future financial perspectives, economic issues and employment and external relations. At Monday's meeting Ministers will have an initial opportunity to review the proposed agenda. Work will continue on this in the coming weeks and will be finalised by Ministers at their meeting immediately before the European Council in June.
I will now deal with the session on external relations. The Council will consider developments in the Middle East peace process. Last week the international Quartet met in New York at principals' level. The European Union was represented by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, High Representative Solana and Commissioner Patten. The Quartet statement issued reaffirmed the road map and the commitment to a negotiated two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is envisaged that Council conclusions will welcome the Quartet statement. Ministers will also consider the outcome of the Euro-Mediterranean mid-term ministerial meeting held in Dublin Castle on 5 and 6 May. The Minister for Foreign Affairs will report on bilateral meetings held with the Israeli and Palestinian Foreign Ministers which took place in the margins of that meeting. He will also report on contacts with Arab partners at the meeting on the question of the Arab League summit at which the Presidency intends to be represented at a high level. In this connection, Ministers will consider the outcome of the Arab League Foreign Ministers' meeting which took place in Cairo on 7 and 8 May.
In accordance with mandates issued by the European Council, it has now become the norm, followed by successive Presidencies, that EU Defence Ministers should meet within the framework of the Council and with their Foreign Minister counterparts at least once during every six month period. Accordingly, this month the Council will meet Defence Ministers. The Council will permit a review of a range of issues relating to military and civilian aspects of EU peacekeeping and crisis management under the European Security and Defence Policy, ESDP.
In terms of specifics, the Council is due to endorse a report prepared by High Representative Javier Solana on developing the EU's capacity for rapid response in the peacekeeping and crisis management area, particularly in support of the United Nations. The United Nations has expressed keen support for the development of this sort of EU capability. The Council is also expected to consider measures aimed at assisting development of African capacities for peacekeeping and crisis management and ongoing work on the development of other aspects of the EU's capacity for military peacekeeping and crisis management to review progress on the steps being taken to establish a European Defence Agency, as mandated by the Thessaloníki European Council in June 2003, and endorse proposals aimed at further developing the EU's means of protecting civilian populations against the effects of terrorist attacks.
In the area of civilian crisis management, Ministers will review the two EU police missions currently under way in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is also expected that Ministers will take note of ongoing work in the future development of EU capabilities for civilian crisis management. I am pleased to report that good progress is being made in each of the various areas. Further detailed reports on these matters and on the closely related subject of conflict prevention will be submitted for approval by Ministers in June prior to onward transmission to the European Council.
Harri Holkeri, the special representative of the UN Secretary General in Kosovo, will participate in the Council in an exchange of views on developments in Kosovo since the flare up of violence in March. He is likely to discuss with Ministers ways in which the UN's policy of standards before status can be strengthened. The EU remains fully committed to building a stable, secure and multi-ethnic Kosovo. The political leaders of Kosovo need now to demonstrate in an unambiguous manner their commitment to a multi-ethnic society upholding the security and human rights of all communities in Kosovo.
The Thessaloníki Agenda, agreed at the EU-western Balkans summit last June, reaffirmed the European perspective on the countries of the western Balkans. Former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia will take a step towards realising its ambition of eventual membership of the EU if the Council formally accepts the Presidency proposal to request the Commission to prepare its opinion on the Macedonian application for EU membership. The Council will also welcome adoption later this month of European partnerships for each of the countries of the region as an important demonstration of the European Union's commitment to the implementation of the Thessaloníki Agenda. Full implementation of the agenda has been an Irish Presidency priority.
The Council is expected to consider the European neighbourhood policy on the basis of a strategy paper which is to be adopted by the Commission today. It is possible that, given the very short lead time between the release of this paper and the Council meeting, the policy will have to be considered at the Council meeting on 14 June, in preparation for the European Council. This is an important initiative which Ireland strongly supports and is all the more important now that enlargement has taken place. Many of the countries involved in the process now share direct land borders with the Union.
Together with the strategy paper to be adopted today, the Commission will also issue a draft financial instrument, together with "country papers" for each of the countries for which the first group of action plans under the policy will be created: Ukraine, Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Presidency will work closely with the Commission to ensure that the policy can be further developed before the end of the Irish Presidency.
The third EU-Latin America-Caribbean summit takes place in Guadalajara, Mexico, in just over two weeks, on 28 May. It will be jointly chaired by the Taoiseach and President Fox of Mexico. This month's Council will review preparations for the summit which is an important event in the European Union's relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. Two over-arching themes have been chosen for the summit: effective multilateralism and social cohesion. The summit also takes place against the background of ongoing negotiations between the EU and Mercosur on a comprehensive association agreement and the demands by the countries of Central America and the Andean community for a date to be set for the opening of negotiations on similar association agreements with their respective regions.
The Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs will attend the EU-Russia summit which President Putin will host in Moscow on 21 May. The Commission President, Mr. Prodi, and High Representative Javier Solana will also attend. Next week's Council will take note of the current state of preparations for the summit. However, work with Russia will continue beyond the Council, right up to the eve of the summit. The extension, on 27 April, of the EU-Russia partnership and co-operation agreement to the ten new EU member states was a significant achievement on an issue which had dominated the EU-Russia agenda for some time. This has created a positive climate for the meeting which will be the first EU-Russia summit following EU enlargement and President Putin's re-election for a second term.
This month's Council will also consider the question of an association agreement with Syria. The Barcelona process is the cornerstone of the EU's dealings with the countries of the Mediterranean. Through it, the EU has developed dialogue with its Mediterranean partners in the political, economic and social spheres. The EU association agreements are key components of the structures through which this dialogue takes place. The EU has concluded association agreements with all its EuroMed partners, except Syria. Agreement has been reached on almost all elements of the association agreement and the only outstanding issue is the wording of a non-proliferation clause. In November 2003 the Council called for the inclusion in all third party agreements of a clause providing for co-operation in countering the proliferation of weapons of massdestruction and their means of delivery. The Syrian agreement will be the first EuroMed association agreement with such a clause. In an effort to conclude the negotiations, the Presidency has proposed compromise language which will give effect to the intentions of the non-proliferation policy of the EU. It is hoped that next week's Council can agree a way forward based on this approach.
A number of meetings are due to be held in the margins of the Council. The 14th meeting of the EU-Gulf Co-operation Joint Ministerial Council will take place on the evening of Monday, 17 May. The Minister for Foreign Affairs will chair the Council as part of our Presidency. Items to be discussed include the implementation of the co-operation agreement and progress in negotiations on an EU-GCC free trade agreement. Ministers will exchange views on recent developments in the EU and the GCC, the Middle East peace process, the EU strategic partnership, Iran, Iraq, terrorism, human rights and non-proliferation issues.
The Minister will also chair the seventh EU-Ukraine Co-operation Council. Commissioner Patten and Ambassador Tom de Bruijn will also attend on the EU side. Prime Minister Yanukovych will lead the Ukrainian delegation. This Co-operation Council follows the recent meeting of the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers' Troika in Dublin on 29 April. A wide range of issues will be discussed during the formal Co-operation Council and the subsequent dinner. Internal political and economic developments in Ukraine, developments in the EU, the European neighbourhood policy, EU-Ukraine relations and international issues all appear on the agenda.
I am happy to take questions from members of the committee.
