This WEEK in the European Union

The European Commission will this week publish its annual reports on progress made by Romania and Bulgaria in fighting corruption and undertaking judicial reform.

The two countries - the most recent members of the bloc - are expected to once again be criticised for the slow progress they have made in tidying up these areas. The commission is also likely to recommend that its monitoring - unprecedented for member state countries - continues beyond 2009.

The European Parliament, meanwhile, will complete its constitutive business this week as it elects the chairs of the remaining eight committees and two sub committees on Monday.

The forming of the committees started last Thursday and is keenly followed by lobbyists, member state representatives and the European Commission as their MEPs shape the legislation that pass through them.

On Tuesday, Carl Bildt, foreign minister of Sweden, currently in charge of the EU, will present MEPs with the country's foreign policy priorities until the end of the year. These include the Eastern Partnership, a scheme set up by Sweden and Poland and designed to integrate ex-communist states neighbouring the EU to form closer ties with the bloc.

Other important issues include trying to make progress on the stalled Doha round of global free trade and on EU enlargement.

The latter will also be the topic of Croatian prime minister Jadranka Kosor's visit to Brussels next week. Zagreb's bid to join the EU is being blocked by Slovenia over a border dispute between the two countries. The long stalemate between the countries has driven EU officials to say they consider it a bilateral dispute that Zagreb and Ljubljana have to sort out themselves.

On Wednesday, commission vice-president Jacques Barrot will discuss the contentious issue of the transfer of personal banking information about EU citizens to the US for security reasons. Three years ago it emerged that financial network SWIFT was permitting US authorities to scrutinise the data, prompting outrage among some MEPs on civil liberties grounds. Brussels reached an agreement with Washington on a broad outline for transferring such data in 2007.

The European Voice last week reported that member states have asked the European Commission to now negotiate a new deal on the issue. But parliament is complaining that it is being kept out of the loop.

Mid-week will also see the commission call on national governments to cooperate more in research on Alzeihmer's, a distressing neurodegenerative disease that affects memory, thinking and behaviour. There is no cure and it ultimately leads to death. According to the commission, it is one of the most important causes of disability in elderly people with recent studies suggesting the number of case will double every 20 years as life expectancy in Europe increases.

The dairy market will also come under scrutiny on Wednesday as the commission will publish an analysis of the sector, which is suffering from a drastic fall in prices. The situation has driven farmers to the streets in protest, most recently during a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels in June.