European Union

Academics and parliamentarians discussed the Union’s further enlargement recently, with the panel urging that the public be better informed.

News editors and experts from European, national and regional media will have their say about Vice-President Wallström's new Communication Strategy in a stakeholder conference in Helsinki next week.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has attempted to drum up support for the beleaguered EU constitution among his fellow commissioners, apparently changing his previous stance towards the document.

The choice facing Serbia as it prepares for elections on January 21st is a stark one. With ultranationalists led by a Hague indictee likely to win the largest single bloc of votes, the oft-quarreling democratic parties are under pressure to overcome their differences.

EU member states are likely to deal with reviving the EU constitution alone, without involving "Brussels machinery", or else a solution will not be found in time for a 2009 deadline, according to Germany's ambassador to the EU, Wilhelm Schönfelder.

Brussels is shifting the political focus onto Croatian internal reforms as a potential barrier to speedy EU entry, while brushing under the carpet its own problems with institutional capacity after the constitution failure.

Brussels' new neighbourhood policy will try and get ex-Soviet states to catch up with Mediterranean rim countries in terms of pro-EU reforms - but the policy is not up to the job, one of the EU's biggest neighbours, Ukraine, says. The new-look "European Neighbourhood Policy" (ENP) will see the EU boost its role in eastern issues such as conflict resolution in Georgia and Moldova by getting involved for the first time in multilateral foreign ministers' meetings of nearby post-Soviet states.

EU member states are still deeply divided over giving up their national veto in matters of counterterrorism and cross-border crimes, with the matter set to be discussed by EU leaders next week. Although just over half of EU justice and home affairs ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (4 December) are against a push for scrapping the veto, Finland – the current holder of the EU presidency – will put the matter on the agenda at the 14-15 December summit.

Turkey intends to open up one port and one airport to trade from Cyprus, the EU's Finnish Presidency said. Turkish business has welcomed this as a positive step towards easing the current diplomatic impasse.

Ein neuer europaweiter TV-Sender sei keine Lösung. Außerdem müsse die Kommunikationspolitik der EU radikale Dezentralisierungsmaßnahmen durchführen und auf neue Technologien setzen. Dies sind die beiden wichtigsten Empfehlungen einer Konferenz in Helsinki am 4. und 5. Dezember 2006. 

The last Strasbourg plenary of the year will be one the busiest for MEPs. Parliament will vote in second-reading on a compromise between MEPs and the Council on the "REACH" chemical package. Parliament will also vote on the approval of Romanian and Bulgarian Commissioners-designate before the two countries join the EU on 1 January 2007. Belarus opposition leader Aliaksandr Milinkevich will be awarded the 2006 Sakharov Prize for "Freedom of Thought" by Parliament's President Josep Borrell.

Inhaltsverzeichnis [Verbergen] 1 Akademische Ausbildung 2 Šešeljs Inhaftierungen 3 Gründung der Serbischen Radikalen Partei 4 Rolle während der Milošević-Regierung 5 Zusammenarbeit mit Führern anderer rechtsextremer Parteien 6 Politische Erfolge 7 Anklage wegen Kriegsverbrechen 8 Privates 9 Zitate 10 Weblinks

Still, there is widespread speculation among EU observers that Vienna could be persuaded to change its position. Vienna is very interested in seeing the EU one day admit Croatia, a country with which Austria has close historical ties.