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EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn presented in Brussels last Wednesday the new European Commission (EC) report on Macedonia, assessing the country's progress towards kick-starting its EU membership negotiations. "Now we can recommend the opening of negotiations for membership", said Rehn. The positive recommendation comes after the EC said Macedonia "has made satisfactory progress in fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria", according to Rehn. Macedonia "achieved convincing progress and substantively addressed key reform priorities".

Leaders of Bosnia's divided communities are meeting to try to end years of political stalemate and reduce the danger of renewed conflict.European Union and United States representatives are mediating the talks in Sarajevo. The aim is to bring in constitutional reform and prepare Bosnia for eventual EU and NATO membership. But the Bosnian Serbs strongly oppose any moves that would jeopardise their desire for more autonomy.

The high representative in Bosnia is an international figure with considerable domestic power. The current incumbent, Valentin Inzko, has described the situation in the country as serious. "Bosnia is in a state of paralysis," he told the BBC. "Things are not moving at the moment. And I deeply regret all this nationalist rhetoric. It's not helpful, it's destructive and many, many wars have started with bad rhetoric. So we should really avoid it."

EU military chiefs are nervous that their advice will not carry the same weight once the new Lisbon Treaty is in place and that the planned diplomatic service will not contain enough experienced military personnel.

Once in force on 1 December, the Lisbon Treaty will merge the current military planning unit with a civilian one and fold all operational and planning divisions into the diplomatic service, due to be fully up and running by 2012. The military chiefs will no longer report to the rotating EU presidency, but directly to the new EU foreign minister, who will also be a vice-president of the European Commission.

The European Commission has proposed setting aside €3.5 billion of regional, agriculture and administrative aid for Croatia's first two years of EU membership, provided the country manages to join the bloc in 2012. The earmarked sum still needs the approval of the 27 member states.

The commission proposal starts with the 'working hypothesis' that the former Yogoslav country will join the EU in "January 2012", based on the "overall progress" achieved so far in accession negotiations. Similar proposals were adopted in the pre-accession phase of the other 12 countries which joined in 2004 and 2007. The document only refers to 2012 and 2013, the last two years of the current seven-year EU budget. From 2014 onwards, Croatia will be part of the next multi-annual financial framework. During these two years, the bulk of the money - €2.3 billion in so-called structural funds – would go to local and regional projects in infrastructure and small and medium enterprises. Croatian farmers would receive some €680 million, while programmes involving the country's judiciary and police would get €170 million.

THE SPANISH government has nominated foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos for the post of EU foreign policy chief, a move that suggests the bloc's leaders remain deadlocked over the appointment with only one day to go before a crucial summit tomorrow night.Mr Moratinos's arrival as a late runner in the race for the foreign post comes amid lingering political divisions among EU leaders over the candidacy of Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy for the presidency of the European Council.As British prime minister Gordon Brown continues to promote his predecessor Tony Blair for the presidency of the council, a widening range of candidates are now lining up for the foreign affairs position.

Far from injecting new impetus into the European Union's foreign policy, the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force on December 1, is likely to further sap its effectiveness.As a result of the treaty's coming into effect, the institutional underpinnings and basic assumptions of EU foreign policy now require adjustment in a manner that will diminish the importance of its communal (also described, variously, as the supranational, federalist, or integrationist) element.

Systematically revised and rewritten throughout, and updated to cover the impact of the Lisbon Treaty, this highly-successful and ground-breaking text remains unique in analyzing the EU as a political system using the methods of comparative political science.

The Hungarian Presidency of the European Union is committed to giving a new impetus to the EU enlargement process and ihopes that a decision will be reached as early as this year on starting EU accession negotiations with Montenegro, Hungary's minister of state for foreign affairs Zsolt Németh said on June 21 2011.Németh was speaking at a news conference after the second meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council(SAA) held between the EU and Montenegro in Luxembourg.