Monday, 7 December 2009

good day to bury bad news????


Foreign Secretary in Brussels for EU Council meetings

07 Dec 2009

On Monday and Tuesday 7 - 8 December David Miliband is attending the General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.
European Council, Getty Images

The General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council meetings on Monday and Tuesday are taking place for the first time as separate Council configurations following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.

The EU Council meetings coincide with the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and David Miliband took part in a press conference alongside his EU7 counterparts from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Finland and France.

Watch the press conference [opens in new window]

The EU7 Foreign Ministers have engaged personally to ensure that climate change and the challenges it poses is a matter of the highest priority on the international agenda, and are committed to the common goal that the global community honours its responsibility to support those countries which will be hardest hit by the effects of a changing climate.

Alongside climate change issues, the General Affairs Council will also prepare the European Council conclusions on the Stockholm Programme ( see below)and financial issues, among other things.

Enlargement issues and crisis management issues will also be discussed during the meetings.

The Foreign Affairs Council will discuss issues including Iran, the Middle East and the Western Balkans.

Further information

Britain in the European Union

Act on Copenhagen

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Stockholm Programme

The Stockholm Programme is to define the framework for EU police and customs cooperation, rescue services, criminal and civil law cooperation, asylum, migration and visa policy for the period 2010–2014. The Programme was discussed at the informal ministerial meeting in Stockholm in July 2009 and will ultimately be adopted by EU Heads of State and Government at the Summit in December 2009.

Photo: Lisa Tanner/Pixgallery

The focus of EU work in the area of justice and home affairs is determined in a five-year programme. The present programme, the Hague Programme, expires in 2009. Setting guidelines for continued work by negotiating a new work programme in the area of justice and home affairs – the Stockholm Programme – will therefore be a major and important task of the Swedish Presidency.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 20:29