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General Affairs and External Relations * 8220/03 (Presse 105) GENERAL AFFAIRS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS * 2501st Council meeting - EXTERNAL RELATIONS - Luxembourg, 14 April 2003 President : Mr Anastasios GIANNITSIS Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic * The 2502nd session on General Affairs is the subject of a separate press release (doc. 8221/03 Presse 106) Internet: http://ue.eu.int/ E-mail: [email protected] For further information call 32 2 285 82 39 32 2 285 60 83 32 2 285 68 08 8220/03 (Presse 105) 1 EN 14.IV.2003 CONTENTS 1 PARTICIPANTS................................................................................................................................ 5 ITEMS DEBATED WIDER EUROPE / NEW NEIGHBOURHOOD................................................................................ 7 WESTERN BALKANS - Council conclusions................................................................................... 9 EU-RUSSIA RELATIONS................................................................................................................ 13 MIDDLE EAST ................................................................................................................................. 14 NORTH KOREA ............................................................................................................................... 15 BELARUS - Council conclusions ..................................................................................................... 16 EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY...................................................................... 18 WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION - Council conclusions...................................................... 19 LIBYA ............................................................................................................................................... 20 NEGOTIATIONS AT THE WTO..................................................................................................... 21 OTHER BUSINESS .......................................................................................................................... 22 SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME................................................................. 22 HUMAN RIGHTS FOLLOWUP TO DURBAN MEETING............................................. 22 CUBA - Council conclusions ................................................................................................... 22 AFGHANISTAN...................................................................................................................... 23 1 ? Where declarations, conclusions or resolutions have been formally adopted by the Council, this is indicated in the heading for the item concerned and the text is placed between quotation marks. ? The documents whose references are given in the text are available on the Council's Internet site http://ue.eu.int. ? Acts adopted with statements for the Council minutes which may be released to the public are indicated by an asterisk; these statements are available on the above mentioned Council Internet site or may be obtained from the Press Office. 8220/03 (Presse 105) 2 EN 14.IV.2003 ITEMS APPROVED WITHOUT DEBATE ENLARGEMENT Admission of ten new Member States......................................................................................................................I EXTERNAL RELATIONS Burma/Myanmar - Council conclusions..................................................................................................................II Indonesia - Council conclusions............................................................................................................................ VI Afghanistan - Council conclusions..................................................................................................................... VIII Generalised tariff preferences................................................................................................................................. X Small Arms - Albania............................................................................................................................................. X CFSP - Annual report to the European Parliament................................................................................................. X ACP - East Timor.................................................................................................................................................. XI Estonia - Slovakia - Conformity Assessment for industrial products.................................................................... XI Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - Heavy goods transit.......................................................................... XI Accession Partnership with Bulgaria..................................................................................................................... XI Accession Partnership with Romania.................................................................................................................... XI Accession Partnership with Turkey....................................................................................................................... XI TRADE Antidumping measures - Stainless steel fasteners ................................................................................................XII ECOFIN New member of ECB Executive Board...............................................................................................................XII JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS Facilitated transit documents *.............................................................................................................................XII AGRICULTURE / ENVIRONMENT Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe .............................................................. XIII 8220/03 (Presse 105) 3 EN 14.IV.2003 RESEARCH / EXTERNAL RELATIONS Scientific and technological co-operation .......................................................................................................... XIII INTERNAL MARKET Fertilisers *......................................................................................................................................................... XIII INSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS Discovery of phonetapping devices in the Justus Lipsius building complaint .............................................. XIV Comitology procedure........................................................................................................................................ XIV Appointments - CEDEFOP ................................................................................................................................ XIV DECISIONS ADOPTED BY WRITTEN PROCEDURE BUDGET Financial perspectives and enlargement.............................................................................................................. XV FISHERIES TACs and Quotas for 2003 *............................................................................................................................... XV 8220/03 (Presse 105) 4 EN 14.IV.2003 PARTICIPANTS The Governments of the Member States and the European Commission were represented as follows: Belgium : Mr Louis MICHEL Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Ms Annemie NEYTS Minister, attached to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, with responsibility for Agriculture Denmark : Mr Per Stig MØLLER Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Friis Arne PETERSEN State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Germany : Mr Joschka FISCHER Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Federal Chancellor Greece : Mr Anastasios GIANNITSIS Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Spain : Ms Ana PALACIO VALLELERSUNDI Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Ramón DE MIGUEL Y EGEA State Secretary for European Affairs France : Mr Dominique de VILLEPIN Minister for Foreign Affairs Ms Noëlle LENOIR Minister attached to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, with responsibility for European Affairs Ireland : Mr Dick ROCHE Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and at the Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for European Affairs Italy : Mr Franco FRATTINI Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Roberto ANTONIONE State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Luxembourg : Ms Lydie POLFER Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Netherlands : Mr Jaap de HOOP SCHEFFER Minister for Foreign Affairs Austria : Ms Benita FERRERO-WALDNER Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Portugal : Mr António MARTINS da CRUZ Minister for Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities Abroad Mr Carlos COSTA NEVES State Secretary for European Affairs Finland : Mr Erkki TUOMIOJA Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Jari VILÉN Minister of Foreign Trade 8220/03 (Presse 105) 5 EN 14.IV.2003 Sweden : Ms Anna LINDH Minister for Foreign Affairs United Kingdom : Mr Denis MACSHANE Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office * * * Commission : Mr Günter VERHEUGEN Member Mr Pascal LAMY Member * * * General Secretariat of the Council : Mr Javier SOLANA Secretary-General/High Representative for the CFSP 8220/03 (Presse 105) 6 EN 14.IV.2003 ITEMS DEBATED WIDER EUROPE / NEW NEIGHBOURHOOD Open debate The Council held a policy debate on the "Wider Europe" initiative and the Union's relations with its Eastern and Southern neighbours. The Permanent Representatives Committee will oversee further work so as to enable the Council to return to this subject at a forthcoming meeting. The "Wider Europe" initiative
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