Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Agenda

Kerry in Brussels this WEEK

  • Prospects of an EU-US trade pact will feature prominently in the meeting (Photo: Vince Alongi)

US Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Brussels on Monday (22 April) for his first visit to the EU capital since taking up his post earlier this year.

He will meet EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to discuss EU-US trade relations, Iran, North Korea and Syria, before he attends a Nato ministerial meeting on Tuesday.

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EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday are set to lift most sanctions against Burma as well as ease the EU's oil embargo on Syria in order to boost the forces fighting against President Bashar Assad's regime.

With the political tide appearing to turn against tax evasion, the European Commission will Tuesday announce the setting up of a 'good governance' platform of experts to advise on what measures the Brussels executive needs to take to fight tax havens. The move comes after a recent journalistic investigation exposing thousands of off-shores accounts and amid a tax-evasion scandal in France.

The following day the commission will propose measures to reduce the hassle of getting official documents authenticated in other member states, a process that is often slow and costly. The move will be spear-headed by Viviane Reding, a commissioner with a track-record of crowd-pleasing initiatives and who reportedly has her eye on the commission presidency when the post comes up for grabs next year.

At the end of the week (27 April) Icelanders will go to the polls. They are expected to kick the pro-European governing Social Democrats party out of office in favour of the centre-right Progressive Party.

Whether the Progressive Party wins outright or forms a coalition party with the Independence Party, the ultimate result in terms of the EU could be a referendum on halting the country's membership talks.

The country has been deeply ambivalent about joining the EU since Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir submitted the country's membership application in July 2009 and promised to hold a referendum on the completion of negotiations.

A recent poll Icelandic TV station (Stod2) and Frettabladid newspaper showed that 55 percent of Icelanders want the country to finish EU negotiations and then have a referendum on whether to join the bloc, while 34 percent want to quit negotiations completely. Eleven percent want to hold a referendum on whether to continue negotiations or not.

Talks to align Iceland laws with the EU have been uncomplicated except in one area - fisheries. Iceland wants to retain sovereignty over its rich fishing waters - the EU is keen to apply common rules.

Environment, Ukraine imports, fish and Easter this WEEK

This week, expect no more than talks on environment, agriculture and fisheries, including discussions between the Polish and Ukrainian governments over angry protests by Polish farmers objecting to cheap grain imports from Ukraine.

EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK

This week, EU leaders come together in Brussels for their usual two-day summit to discuss defence, enlargement, migration and foreign affairs. EU ministers for foreign affairs and EU affairs will meet earlier in the week to prepare the European Council.

EU summit prep work and von der Leyen's Egypt visit This WEEK

MEPs will hold a debate with EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen about the next European Council on Tuesday. Later this week, on Sunday, von der Leyen will be in Egypt for talks regarding a potential 'cash-for-migrant-control' deal.

Defence, von der Leyen, women's rights, in focus This WEEK

Ursula von der Leyen is expected to be confirmed as the EPP candidate for president of the next EU Commission. A new defence strategy will be unveiled this week, while the ECB is expected to maintain interest rates.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

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