European Union News - European Union

The European Parliament and the Council started negotiations over EU's annual budget on 27 October. Under the new budget procedure, Parliament and Member States have three weeks to reach an agreement. Failure to do so could mean that the EU will have to work with the same budget in 2011 as in 2010, on a month-by-month basis.

The General Affairs Council, meeting in Luxembourg on 25 October, agreed to refer Serbia's application for membership of the EU to the Commission for an opinion. In its conclusions, Council put forward a set of conditions regarding the need for cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as well as the arrest of war criminals Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.

Foreign Affairs Ministers held an exchange of views over lunch, within the Foreign Affairs Council held in Luxembourg on 25 October, on recent political and economic developments in Cuba and on the options for the EU's policy towards Cuba.

The European Parliament plenary session, meeting in Strasbourg, fixed its position towards the budget of the European Union for year 2011. Although, MEPs position takes into account the austerity policies and measures put in place by many member states, the Chamber called for more EU investment in research, innovation, education and energy, as well as pledged to provide sufficient funding for the new tasks and priorities stemming from the Lisbon Treaty.

Presidents of the European Parliament and the Commission, Jerzy Buzek and José Manuel Barroso, signed on 20 October the revised Framework Agreement governing working relations between the two institutions. This Agreements which adapts the existing one from 2005 to the Lisbon Treaty framework offers practical solutions in line with the increased competences of Parliament under the new Treaty.

The European Commission has adopted a strategy to ensure that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is fully respected by verifying that all community law comply with the Charter at each stage of the legislative process, from the early preparatory work to the application by Member States. Commission will also provide information to citizens on when it can intervene in fundamental rights issues and will publish an Annual Report on the Charter’s application to monitor the progress achieved.

The European Commission has presented its Communication entitled “Smart Regulation in the European Union” in order to ensure that European legislation really benefits European citizens and businesses. This Communication outlines the measures that the Commission intends to put in place in order to ensure better quality and relevance of legislation helping  achieve the ambitious objectives for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth set out by the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The European Parliament's 24 committee chairs met the College of Commissioners for the first time on 7 October, to give their input to the Commission work programme for 2011. This meeting lisbon Treaty's mandate for further cooperation between the two institutions.

Vice-President of the European Parliament Diana Wallis and Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič presented on 6 October an update on the progress towards the establishment of a single register for all entities and organisations participating in European policy-making processes.

The Constitutional Affairs Committee meeting in Brussels on 5 October, debated on how cutting red tape and make easier for citizens to table their initiatives seeking EU legislation. Introducing an early stage admissibility test based as well as certain and clear criteria were key points of the debate.

The European Parliament wants to play a more active role in negotiating new rules governing EU  budget. This is one of the elements within a resolution adopted at the plenary session on 22 September where MEPs called for more flexibility in budgetary rules in order to bring a better response to new challenges facing the Union.