Vol. 574 No. 3
28 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the matters discussed and conclusions reached at the meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council in Luxembourg on 13 and 14 October 2003; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26728/03]
Owing to pressing business in Northern Ireland, I was unable to attend the General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting of 13-14 October in Luxembourg. Ireland was represented at the meeting by the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for European Affairs, Deputy Roche. However, I appeared before the Joint Committee on European Affairs on Wednesday, 8 October 2003 for an exchange of views on the Council's agenda and, following the Council, my Department forwarded the relevant conclusions prepared by the Council Secretariat to the Committee for information. These are also available on the following internet address: www.europa.eu.int/comm/externalrelations/gacIn accordance with its usual practice, the Council met in two sessions, one dealing with general affairs and the other dealing with external relations. In the general affairs session the Council took note of a Presidency report on recent meetings of the Agriculture, Justice and Home Affairs and ECOFIN Councils. The Council also discussed the Presidency's annotated agenda for the European Council of 16-17 October which focused on relaunching the European economy, strengthening the area of freedom, justice and security and external relations. A request from the President of the European Parliament for issues linked to the statute for members of the European Parliament to be reviewed by the Intergovernmental Conference was discussed. The Presidency concluded that while the Council was favourable to a discussion with the Parliament on these issues they were not in favour of submitting them to the Intergovernmental Conference.
The Council addressed a wide range of issues in the session on external relations and adopted conclusions in relation to wider Europe, Iraq, the western Balkans and Iran. Ministers had an in-depth exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East in order to prepare for the discussion on this item at the European Council. The Council also held an exchange of views on the EU-Russia Summit due to be held in Rome on 6 November 2003.
In addition to these issues, a number of items were discussed under any other business, namely: Democratic Republic of Congo/International Criminal Court, the Great Lakes region, Afghanistan and Moldova.
A ministerial meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference also took place in the margins of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, at which the composition of the Commission, the proposed European Union Foreign Minister post and preparation of the European Council on 16-17 October were discussed.
Meetings of the Association Council with Jordan and the European Economic Area Council took place in the margins of the Council. In addition, an agreement was signed between the Community and the Special Administrative region of Macao on the readmission of persons residing without authorisation
