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Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

12.03.08: Ireland to hold EU treaty referendum im June - 0 views

euobserver.com/25820

constitution eu-policy_memberstates ireland lisbon-treaty ratification referendums

shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 12 Mar 08 - Cached
  • The Irish government has indicated that the country's highly anticipated referendum on the EU treaty will take place in the second week of June.
  • Ireland is the only country to have a referendum on the EU treaty, meaning that between now and the poll, the government and Irish voters will be carefully watched by both politicians and media from around Europe. All 27 member states must ratify the treaty for it to come into force, with the goal for this to take place being the beginning of next year.
  • So far, five countries have ratified the treaty - France, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and Malta. But in other countries, the treaty question is becoming tangled up in other issues. Slovakia was forced to put off a vote on the treaty due to an internal dispute over media law, while the Finnish media is reporting that semi-autonomous Aaland - an island between Finland and Sweden - is kicking up a fuss over snuff. Finnish state broadcaster YLE reports that the Aaland government may reject the EU treaty - and undermine the country's general ratification of the treaty, due to a row over the right to sell snuff, a smokeless tobacco.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

25.04.08: Clear votes for new EU Treaty in Denmark, Austria and Germany - 0 views

www.euractiv.com/...article-171930

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 25 Apr 08 - Cached
  • The ratification process for the new Treaty gained momentum yesterday (24 April) as the Danish and Austrian parliaments approved the text, which also easily passed Germany's lower House. The votes in Vienna and Copenhagen mean the Treaty has now been adopted in 11 out of 27 countries.
  • For the Treaty to enter into force, all 27 member states have to ratify it. Ahead of Austria and Denmark, nine countries had already given their approval to the next, namely Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Portugal. Ireland is set to be the only country to hold a referendum on the Treaty, which is scheduled for 12 June. 
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

11.04.08: Slovakia, Poland ratify Lisbon Treaty - 0 views

www.euractiv.com/...article-171547

constitution eu-policy_memberstates lisbon-treaty poland ratification slovakia

shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 11 Apr 08 - Cached
  • Slovakia has become the ninth country to ratify the new EU Treaty as deputies approved the text by a margin of 103 votes to five - after settling a dispute over a controversial media bill that had dragged on for months.
  • Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed his relief following the vote, saying "with this document, the EU will be closer to Slovak citizens"
  • Meanwhile, Polish President Lech Kaczynski added his signature to the Treaty, clearing the final hurdle in the country's ratification process. It had already been approved by both chambers of the Polish Parliament last week (EurActiv 02/04/08).  The Polish president and his brother, former prime minister and current opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had long delayed ratification, demanding legal guarantees that the new Treaty would not threaten Polish interests.  Ahead of Poland and Slovakia,  seven countries have ratified the Treaty, namely Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Austria, which was the most recent signatory (EurActiv 10/04/08). The text has to be approved by all 27 member states to enter into force. 
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

02.06.08: France readies for 'heaviest Presidency in EU history - 0 views

www.euractiv.com/...article-172884

constitution eu-policy_memberstates france french_presidency_2008 ireland lisbon-treaty referenda

shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 10 Jun 08 - Cached
  • On 1 July 2008, France takes over the EU's six-month rotating presidency from Slovenia with an exceptionally busy agenda. According to a French diplomat in Brussels, "this presidency is the heaviest one of all the history of the European Union in terms of workload".
  • Irish referendum on everyone's minds The outcome of the Irish referendum on 12 June will undoubtedly have a considerable impact on the Presidency's schedule. 
  • "For the first time, you have this coincidence of a heavier Union but there is also the end of the political mandate of the Commission and Parliament as well as the end of the [ratification process of] the Lisbon Treaty. You never had all these things together."
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  • Preparing for the EU diplomatic service And provided all goes well and Ireland ratifies, there will still be a lot to do as the pressure then will fall on preparations for the Treaty's new provisions, which enter into force on 1 January 2009. According to Kouchner, the French Presidency's work there will centre on designating the future permanent president of the Council and the new foreign policy chief, decisions which are all expected to be taken by EU heads of state at a summit in December.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

19.06.08: EU summit unlikely to more intensively deal with Balkans enlargement - 0 views

euobserver.com/26351

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 19 Jun 08 - Cached
  • EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday (19 June) will spend little time discussing enlargement of the bloc, and are not expected to do more than reaffirm western Balkan countries' "European perspective" – despite greater expectations from some of the EU hopefuls. One such country – Macedonia, an EU candidate since 2005 – has lately been indicating its readiness to start accession negotiations as soon as possible.
  • Macedonia had had high expectations on starting accession negotiations during Ljubljana's time at the EU helm, as Slovenia – which was part of the former Yugoslavia together with Macedonia – has made the Western Balkans' EU integration a priority of its presidency. Moreover, not winning the announcement of a date now means that Skopje may not start negotiations this year at all, as the next EU presidency country, France, has explicitly taken Greece's side in the name row, and is not expected to put a particular emphasis on enlargement issues.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

18.06.08: MEPs in passinate war of words over Irish No - 0 views

euobserver.com/26348

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 18 Jun 08 - Cached
  • After the Irish rejection featured in several diverse discussions throughout this week's plenary session in Strasbourg, the assembly held a debate dedicated exclusively to the issue on Wednesday (18 June).
  • With all eyes on the EU leaders' summit in Brussels on Thursday, Janez Lenarcic, secretary of state for European affairs for Slovenia, currently chairing the 27-strong bloc, told MEPs that the continued ratification of the treaty looks likely to be supported by all participants at the top-level meeting. "The presidency has held talks with countries which have not yet ratified the treaty, and it is quite encouraging to see that those countries are ready to continue the ratification process," said Mr Lenarcic. The same approach was advocated by the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who argued that the energy the EU had put in to drawing up its internal reform "cannot go to waste."
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

08.02.08: France ratifies EU treaty - 0 views

euobserver.com/25619

constitution eu-policy_memberstates france lisbon-treaty ratification

shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 08 Feb 08 - Cached
  • The French parliament has approved the new EU treaty, making France the first of the large member states to ratify the document and drawing a line under the shock 'No' vote of almost three years ago when French voters rejected the original EU constitution.

    Both the national assembly (336 in favour and 52 against) on Thursday (7 February) and the senate (265 in favour, 42 against and 13 abstentions) on Friday voted strongly in favour of the Lisbon Treaty, a reworking of the rejected constitution containing most of its innovations.
  • The French ratification, which has to be formally signed and sealed by president Nicolas Sarkozy, makes France the fifth country after Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Romania to approve the treaty. The treaty introduces a powerful foreign policy chief, a permanent president of the European Council and gives greater legislative powers to the European Parliament. It must be ratified by all 27 member states to come into force.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

21.01.08: EU officials to begin work on treaty - 0 views

euobserver.com/25489

constitution lisbon-treaty slovenian_presidency

shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 21 Jan 08 - Cached
  • An internal document circulated by Slovenia, the current holder of the EU presidency, and seen by EUobserver sets out 33 areas that need to be examined this year if the treaty is to come into force on 1 January 2009 as planned.

    "Before entry into force, a number of issues related to its full functioning will need to be addressed," says the document.
  • At the moment, it is not clear whether the president's post - essentially representing the European Union externally - should have some sort of staff. There are currently no provisions for this in the treaty. In addition, there is the thorny issue of all the pending EU laws that may be affected by the fact that the entry into force of the treaty will see MEPs have full co-decision rights.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

31.01.07: Brussels leaves Macedonia in the dark on EU entry talks - 0 views

euobserver.com/23384

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 11 May 07 - Cached
  • Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 11 May 07
     
    The European Commission says it is too early to set a start date for Macedonia's EU entry talks, despite Slovenia dropping hints that its EU presidency - in the first half of 2008 - could see Skopje get a firm timetable for negotiations. [...]
    Earlier this month, the ex-Yugoslav country of 2 million received a positive statement from Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa who said in the European Parliament that his government would "try to help this candidate country to get a date."

Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

26.01.07: German proposal for enhanced cross-border policy cooperation - 0 views

euobserver.com/23351

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 11 May 07 - Cached
  • Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 11 May 07
     
    In just over two weeks (15-16 February) Berlin is set to table a formal proposal to transpose the so-called Prüm Treaty into EU law-books, a move that would allow EU states to give one another automatic access to genetic records, fingerprints and traffic offences.
    The Prüm Treaty - signed in 2005 - is currently a seven-nation pact between Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Spain, with four other member states (Finland, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia) eager to jump in.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

11.12.2006: Prospect of Serb radicals winning elections is sowing division in the EU - 1 views

euobserver.com/23073

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 11 May 07 - Cached
  • Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 11 May 07
     
    The prospect of Serb radicals winning January elections is sowing division in the EU, with some Balkan EU member states keen to give Belgrade moderates a "welcoming message" ahead of the vote while France and the Netherlands want to play it tough on war crimes. Slovenia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the Czech republic's foreign ministers on Monday pushed for an EU leaders' statement on Friday (15 December) to stress that "Serbia remains welcome to join the European Union" while softening calls to hand over Ratko Mladic to the UN.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

23.06.09: Priorities for Sweden's upcoming Presidency - 0 views

euobserver.com/28353

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 23 Jun 09 - Cached
  • With just over a week to go before Sweden takes over the helm of the EU's six-month rotating presidency, the country's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, has made it clear he does not intend to waste time attempting to unblock the many bilateral disputes that currently pepper the EU's diplomatic landscape.
  • One area where he appears to be more optimistic for a quick solution is the future status of Iceland which – depending on an upcoming parliamentary debate – may submit an application in the coming months to join the EU.
  • Sweden's European affairs minister and former MEP, Cecilia Malmstrom, speaking alongside her colleague, said she is under no illusion the next six months are going to be easy and that the presidency's main priorities will be to deal with negotiations in the lead up to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December and the economic crisis.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Not likely to help the Swedes however, is the significant institutional change that is expected under their watch, with a new European Parliament due to sit for the first time next month and the current commission scheduled to end this October. Adding to this confusion is the current drawn-out changeover between the Nice and Lisbon Treaties, with four countries – Ireland, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic - yet to ratify the EU's new set of rules.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

29.04.10: EU top brass to drop out of Sarajevo event - 0 views

waz.euobserver.com/29966

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 30 Apr 10 - Cached
  • In a political blow for next month's planned Sarajevo conference, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele have indicated they will only attend if the presence of all Western Balkan countries, including Kosovo, is guaranteed. According to diplomatic sources in Brussels, Ms Ashton and Mr Fuele intend to follow the approach taken by EU council president Herman Van Rompuy, who stayed away from a EU-Western Balkans summit in Slovenia last month as Serbia refused to attend alongside Kosovo.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

EUobserver / Romania threatens Croatia in Schengen dispute - 0 views

euobserver.com/31589

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 04 Jan 11 - Cached
  • Romania is threatening to create problems for Croatia's EU accession bid in a diplomatic counter-attack against delays to its own entry into the EU's border-free Schengen zone. Romanian foreign minister Teodor Baconschi in an interview with the daily newspaper Adevarul on Monday (3 January) attacked Germany and France for linking Romania's Schengen bid to progress on corruption and organised crime.
  • EUobserver understands that this option is not really feasible however, as the monitoring was a jointly agreed commitment of Bulgaria and Romania when they joined the bloc. "It's unwise to give it up if you want something else at the same time," one EU official told this website. For its part, Croatia has already been held hostage by its neighbour Slovenia, which in recent years delayed its EU accession progress over a maritime border dispute. Romania's sabre-rattling seems to be directed primarily at Germany - Croatia's main supporter in the EU - rather than the Balkan state itself. But it could, in theory, delay the process. Croatia is hoping to finish EU accession talks in the coming months. EU governments and the European Parliament then have to approve and ratify its accession treaty, with membership likely to happen in 2013 if everything goes smoothly.
  • Mr Petkov's allegations reflect a dire image painted by EU officials in talks with US diplomats in Sofia, as reported in a US cable dating back to 26 June 2009 and published by WikiLeaks. Under the headline "How to you make them reform when they don't want to?" the US diplomats spoke of EU commission officials' "growing and by now extreme frustration with Sofia's cosmetic fixes to get a 'good report' while failing to undertake real reforms." "The government's defensive arrogance - and lack of political will - is intensifying enlargement fatigue in Brussels," an EU source told the US diplomat. "According to reliable contacts, Brussels Eurocrats have dubbed enlargement fatigue the 'Bulgarian Break,' further tarnishing Bulgaria's bad image within the EU," the cable added.
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

05.10.09: Restart of 'win-win-win' Croatia talks - 0 views

www.euractiv.com/...article-186092

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shared by Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann on 08 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Croatia made "substantial progress" by opening six and closing five negotiating chapters with the EU, said Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn after a meeting between representatives of Croatia, Slovenia and the EU on Friday (2 October). But Zagreb recognised the difficulty of the challenges ahead in its accession talks, especially in justice and home affairs.
  • The conference, led on the EU side by Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Bildt, and on the Croatian side by Gordan Jandrokovi, minister of foreign affairs and European integration, opened negotiations on six chapters: Chapter 4 (Free Movement of Capital), Chapter 11 (Agriculture and Rural Development), Chapter 12 (Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy), Chapter 16 (Taxation), Chapter 22 (Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments), and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security). It also provisionally closed five other chapters: Chapter 2 (Free Movement of Workers), Chapter 6 (Company Law), Chapter 18 (Statistics), Chapter 21 (Trans-European Networks) and Chapter 29 (Customs Union). Rehn insisted that the reopening of the negotiations, which now comprise a total of eleven chapters, represent a crucial step in Croatia's accession process.
  • Links European Union Council of the European Union: Eighth meeting of the Accession Conference at ministerial level with Croatia (2 October 2009)
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