This WEEK in the European Union

HONOR MAHONY

23.11.2009 @ 07:08 CET

EUOBSERVER / WEEKLY AGENDA (23 - 29 November) - This week member states are set to increase their lobbying for posts in the next European Commission, following the appointment of a Briton, Catherine Ashton, to be vice-president of the commission and EU foreign policy chief.

With this piece of the puzzle in place, commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso can now begin distributing the dossiers, with internal market, competition and economic and monetary affairs viewed as among the most prized portfolios.

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Mr Barroso is hoping to have the posts allocated around the beginning of December. This would give the commissioner-designates some weeks to prep up their topics before facing hearings in the European Parliament, expected to start on 11 January.

The coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December has strong implications for the European Parliament, which stands to gain a large boost in co-legislating power.

It also means changes to its size with 18 MEPs to join the EU assembly, reflecting the larger plenary foreseen under the new rules. A vote on Wednesday is to pave the way for the new parliamentarians to join.

MEPs, meeting in Strasbourg, will on Tuesday have their second free debate with Mr Barroso, an innovation begun last month as part of a set of political sweeteners offered by the commission president in return for their returning him to office for a second mandate. The nominations to the two top EU jobs decided at last week's EU summit will be the topic of the debate.

The parliament will take a final vote on a law liberating the telecoms sector on Tuesday and will the following day discuss the prospects for a global climate change deal at a meeting in the Danish capital next month. Enlargement will feature during a plenary debate on Wednesday, with countries of the Western Balkans as well as Turkey and Iceland, all expected to join the bloc at some point in the future.

Future economic strategy

The commission on Tuesday will present preliminary plans for a future 10-year economic strategy for the 27-nation Union. The current strategy, known as the Lisbon Strategy runs out in 2010, and has become synonymous with a series of missed objectives in areas such as education goals and R&D investment. The main problem with the strategy is that member states are responsible for implementing the objectives while the commission may only harass them from the sidelines.

EU environment ministers will gather in Brussels on Monday for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the EU's position ahead of the Copenhagen summit.

A meeting last month of EU leaders saw division among member states on the issue of money. The division means the EU will enter the Copenhagen meeting without having said how much it is prepared to pay towards developing countries undertaking steps to tackle climate change. It is also unclear on what the member states will individually contribute to the EU sum.