This WEEK in the European Union

It's a foreign affairs sort of week for the European institutions next week, with foreign ministers on Monday (22 March) taking a hard look at the Middle East peace process following high representative Catherine Ashton's whistle-stop tour of the region.

With the US and EU hoping to push the two sides towards "proximity talks" in the near future, ministers are to discuss the peace process state of play with Tony Blair, the Mideast envoy for the Quartet. The former UK prime minister is also to discuss the situation with MEPs at a special meeting of the parliament's development committee looking at the crisis in the Palestinian territories on the same day.

The foreign ministers will also undertake a review of the EU's continuing support for Haiti after the deadly earthquake that struck the Caribbean island in January. At the end of the month, New York is to be host to an international donor's conference where issues of mid-to-long-term reconstruction will be considered and calls for funding hopefully answered now that the immediate emergency needs have subsided. The EU foreign ministers will prepare the bloc's position on the matter ahead of the New York conference, looking at in particular at contingency measures in advance of the country's rainy and hurricane seasons.

But Haiti is not the only country in the southern hemisphere to be struck by a lethal quake. Disaster response commissioner Kristalina Georgieva is also to brief the ministers on the EU's response to the earthquake in Chile.

The ministers are expected to confirm the appointment of the union's new special representative nd head of delegation to Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas. Mr Usackas stepped down from his job as Lithuania's foreign minister in January amid controversy over his alleged role in secret CIA prisons in the country.

Finally, the ministers will revisit the topic that has split Brussels these last few weeks, the bunfight between the European Commission and the member states for influence in the European External Action Service, the bloc's new 'foreign office.'

The latter topic will also be at the forefront of the MEPs' thoughts as Ms Ashton comes before the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament. The deputies are certain to stick their oar into the matter before also giving Mr Usackas their own grilling on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the parliament, from Monday to Tuesday, the budgetary control committee is set to vote on whether to approve the EU institutions' financial management in 2008.

Still on financial matters, the commission on Wednesday is to assess the stability and convergence programmes for a full 10 member states: Slovenia, Luxembourg, Malta, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. The EU executive is likely to warn that forecasts for growth might be on the over-optimistic side and that member states need to provide greater details on how to bring their budgets into line.

In the social realm meanwhile, and also on Wednesday, the commission is to propose a new regulation aiming to allow couples getting divorced to choose which EU country's laws apply to their divorce or separation. Each year in the EU there are about 140,000 international couples who get divorced - around 19 percent of all separations. The crucial question is: which law applies in such cases? People need legal certainty in such difficult situations because this can determine which parent will get custody rights for children and how joint property will be divided.

On the surface, the matter seems like just another commission regulation, but it is highly controversial. The commission originally proposed a regulation on the same subject in 2006 , but the proposal never secured the required unanimity of member states. Since then however, 10 EU countries said they would like to advance the proposal.

EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has decided to use the enhanced co-operation procedure to finally break the deadlock, which allows some member states to move ahead in areas they wish to see developed while other states remain outside such a circle of agreement. The divorce regulation would be the first ever of enhanced cooperation in the EU's history and some worry that as with opt-outs, the Eurozone and Schengen, it further encourages a two-or-three-or-four-speed Europe.

Finally, on Thursday and Friday, EU premiers and presidents descend upon Brussels for the spring summit. Two main topics will dominate the agenda: reaching agreement on the general framework for the EU's new 10-year economic plan - the 2020 strategy for jobs - and the follow-up to the Copenhagen conference on climate change. The latter topic comes as key figures in Europe and across the Atlantic are ratcheting down hopes for a binding global climate agreement any time soon.