From January 1st 2006 Austria is succeeding UK at the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for a semester. During the second semester of 2006, the Council Presidency will be held by Finland. The program of both Austrian and Finnish presidencies was submitted to the Council of EU and the priorities of the […]

Continuing the series of public opinion surveys Eurobarometer, the European Commissions conducted a survey in October- November 2005 and published the results on December 20th. The survey covered issues such as: Life satisfaction, where 80% of Europeans declared they are satisfied with the lives the lead Being a member of the European Union today, where […]

The succession of EU Council Presidencies for the next 13 years was established at the General Affairs Council meeting on December 12th. The rotation will be the following: Austria : January – June 2006Finland : July – December 2006Germany : January – June 2007Portugal : July – December 2007Slovenia : January – June 2008France : […]

The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council met in Brussels on 8th and 9th December. The Employment and Social affairs issues were discussed on the 8th,   with the presence of Commissioner for Employment, Social affairs and equal opportunities Vladimir Špidla. The agenda of the meeting included: The revision of the Working time directive […]

On October 13th the European Commission has published a communication document on the “Commission’s contribution to the period of reflection and beyond: Plan-D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate” The so called Plan D is about beginning a debate with citizens in the 25 member states on the future of Europe, how citizens perceive it and […]

In the frame of the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign held in October, Tuesday 18 October 2005 was decided to be ‘Breast Cancer Day’ at the European Parliament. The day will start with a press conference by MEP Karin Jöns who was the initiator of this event on Breast Cancer Day in the European Union,  followed by the […]

Turkey and Croatia are both on the official path to full EU membership after a long day of EU negotiations during the 2678th Council Meeting on General Affairs and External Relations in Luxembourg, 3rd of October 2005. The decision of the Council was accepted with a lot of scepticism from European press and politicians. There […]

In a referendum on 25 September 2005, the Swiss have voted in favour to extend the agreement on the free movement of persons to include the EU-10 new Member States. According to the latest figures, 56% per cent of voters voted for the extension of the 1999 accord, while 44% voted against. Turnout was 53.8%. […]

On 29 July 2005 the Council of the European Union appointed four new members to the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). Among them CPME Secretary-General Ms. Lisette Tiddens-Engwirda as the representative for the medical profession. The appointment of representatives of European patients’, doctors’ and veterinarians’ organizations in the EMEA Board was introduced […]

On 10 August 2005, the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) published “Who’s afraid of EU enlargement?”, a first report on free movement of people in the enlarged Union as a start to a hotline.  The report is based on official figures from the majority of EU countries.  They show that the actual level of migration […]