Agenda
This WEEK in the European Union
Europe returns to work this coming week. It is easy to tell that it is the real start to the new year by the plethora of New Year's receptions and official launches of European Years of Something-or-other.
Saturday sees the official launch of 2011's European Year of Volunteering, in Budapest. This year's focus follows on from 2010's European Year of Combatting Poverty and Social Exclusion. Volunteer organisations will be very excited indeed should 2011 turn out to be as successful as 2010 was.
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But Europe has not just one but two Official Years of Something this year. Competing with, or perhaps complementing, the European Year of Volunteering will be the launch on Tuesday in Brussels of the EU-China Year of Youth. Indeed, one of the keynote speeches marking the beginning of the Volunteering Year will be by justice commissioner Viviane Reding at the European Youth Centre, so perhaps she can engage in some multitasking there.
And on Friday, there is the launch of the European Capital of Culture - which this year is Turku, the oldest city in Finland, to be attended by culture commissioner Androulla Vassiliou. Meanwhile on Wednesday, the official New Year's Reception at the Belgian Royal Palace will take place, as well as the European Commission's New Year's Reception, hosted by President Barroso.
In this week of launches, openings and kick-offs, Wednesday will mark the beginning of the very first cycle of surveillance of member-state public spending decisions known as the ‘European Semester'. The semester is the first step towards what policymakers and analysts refer to as EU ‘economic governance'. From now on, the commission is to present a Growth Survey that evaluates the economic situation and challenges of the EU overall as well offers specific ‘recommendations' on spending decisions to individual member states. Both markets and academics interested in the development of European integration will be eager to see what substance lies behind this new system.
Dovetailing with the launch of the growth survey, both President Barroso and economy commissioner Olli Rehn will deliver speeches the same day to a conference on ‘Integrated Economic Governance' hosted by the Bureau of European Policy Advisors, the commission's in-house think-tank.
On Monday, the EU's Committee of Wise Men on digitisation is to present its recommendations on how to digitise, bring online and preserve the collections of all European libraries, archives and museums. Given the controversy surrounding both private and public efforts at digitisation from Google to the EU's own initiative, Europeana, as well as the many battles over online content and copyright tech watchers will be keeping their eyes peeled for any out-of-the-box strategies the wise men may bring to the table.
Also on Monday, enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele will head to Kiev to meet with the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders. The same day, home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom will also receive Libya's European affairs secretary. A liberal and historically strong advocate of migrant rights, the commissioner in October returned from a visit to the country to initiate a dialogue between the EU and Libya on issues relating to asylum and migration worried that the country has not signed the Geneva Convention and that "the concept of asylum is not in Libyan law." However, with the rise in anti-immigrant policies being implemented across Europe and key EU member-state Italy's migrant-capture agreement with Tripoli a flagship Berlusconi policy, the commissioner must walk a fine line if she is to keep everybody happy.
In other controversial foreign affairs developments, on Tuesday trade commissioner Karel De Gucht is to meet with the deputy prime minister of Serbia while fundamental rights commissioner Viviane Reding is to meet with Albania's justice minister. They will be the first meetings with high officials from the two countries since the publication of the Council of Europe's explosive report accusing Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci of being a gangster that trafficked in the organs of Serbian prisoners. Serbia has demanded the EU take action while Albania, Kosovo's biggest ally, has accused the report's author of defamation.
Separately, President Barroso and energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger are off on a two-day trip to the central Asian republics of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on Thursday and Friday.
Also on Thursday, internal market commissioner Michel Barnier heads to Greece for ministerial meetings and a visit to the parliament. The visit comes as both mainstream parties have begun to split, with the conservative New Democracy party hemorrhaging MPs to a new centrist formation and the governing centre-left Pasok losing left-wing deputies horrified at the austerity measures being imposed. Fresh protests have also begun this week by left-wing groups after a six-year-old Roma girl was run over and killed by a motorcycle policeman in Athens in an echo of the killing of a young man in the capital by police two years ago that set off a month of riots.