Serbia Files EU Application

Serbia filed its application to join the European Union, clearing the latest in a line of hurdles that may still delay its accession for years as it seeks to erase a reputation tarnished by the civil wars of the 1990s.

The Balkan nation may not find it easy to become a member of the EU, which expanded eastward by embracing 12 mainly post- communist members since 2004. Croatia, which has worked on its application for several years, has concluded talks in just 17 of 35 policy areas and may take another two years or more to wrap up entry.

Serbia has struggled to rebuild its reputation and economy following the wars that broke out during the fissure of Yugoslavia. Before it can complete membership talks, it needs to arrest and extradite Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb wartime commander, to the UN war crimes court in the Netherlands to stand trial for genocide during the 1992-1995 war and the 1995 killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica.

“There is a certain fatigue on the extension of the EU that you can feel,” said Mark Almond, a history lecturer at Oxford University’s Oriel College. The EU will move at a slower pace as it digests future members, especially those from the east, he said. The bloc will probably be “stricter” in applying membership criteria to Serbia and it will be “very easy for the EU to say when talks get tricky that you didn’t catch Mladic yet,” Almond said.

Bloomberg

Europe's Trade Surplus Spikes

Europe's October trade surplus exploded higher in October, hitting $8.3 billion. Note this was even before the Euro really started to crash against the dollar. Still, Europe's trade surplus says more about the continent's inability to consume imports, rather than a ability to trade right now. Exports fell less than imports, yet both fell.

Unadjusted exports fell 17 percent year-on-year in October while imports dropped 24 percent, the European Union's statistics office said. Adjusted for seasonal swings, the surplus was 6.3 billion euros, up from 4.3 billion in September as exports eased 0.2 percent month-on-month while imports fell 2.2 percent on the month.

December's dollar rally means the Euro Area's trade surplus could keep widening.

Businessinsider

EU opens borders to Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia

The European Union on Saturday opened its borders unrestricted to more than ten million Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians after nearly 20 years, a major boost for the troubled region's hopes for closer ties with the 27-nation bloc. The three western Balkan nations celebrated the lifting of visas with fireworks, concerts and all-night festivities, marking a significant milestone for citizens who have long felt shunned by the rest of Europe.
Link

Eurozone industrial production down in October: EU

Industrial production across the 16 eurozone countries declined sharply in October, ending five months of expanding output, official statistics showed on Monday. Industrial production across the eurozone fell by 0.6 percent in October, after a rise of 0.2 percent in September, and fell by 11.1 percent on an annual basis, according to the European Union's Eurostat agency.

Detailed figures compared to one year earlier showed heavy falls across the board, with energy production down by 6.8 percent and production of durable consumer goods like fridges and televisions down by 14.9 percent and capital goods collapsing by 16.3 percent.

More than one million fewer people were classed as working across the European Union in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the previous three-month period, Brussels said on Monday. Added Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight: "The disappointing relapse... is a reminder that the eurozone still faces a difficult economic environment and a tough job to develop healthy, sustainable recovery.

"This reinforces belief that the European Central Bank should only gradually withdraw its emergency liquidity measures and keep interest rates down at 1.00 percent until deep into 2010, particularly as underlying inflationary pressures currently remain muted."

AFP

Az uniós csúcs mérlege

Az ülés résztvevői üdvözölték az unió intézményrendszerét és működését korszerűsítő Lisszaboni Szerződés hatályba lépését, és fontosnak mondták a szerződésben foglaltak gyors gyakorlatba ültetését. Ennek megfelelően a következő hónapok során meg kell születniük az uniós külügyi szolgálattal, az Európai Parlamentre vonatkozó változtatásokkal, valamint a polgárok kezdeményezési jogának gyakorlatba ültetésével összefüggő szabályoknak - emelte ki a zárónyilatkozat.

A korszerűsített intézményrendszer teljes körű működésének megteremtése – a személyi döntések múlt hónapi megszületését követően – elsősorban a következő három félév uniós elnökségére, Spanyolországra, Belgiumra és Magyarországra vár.

A mostani találkozón a 27 tagország három évre (2010-2012) szólóan összesen 7,2 milliárd (évente 2,5 milliárd) euró támogatást ajánlott fel a fejlődő országok klímaváltozás elleni harcához. Valamennyi tagállam tett felajánlást: mint Bajnai Gordon miniszterelnök bejelentette, Magyarország összesen hatmillió euróval járul hozzá ehhez a törekvéshez.

Az elnöklő Fredrik Reinfeldt svéd kormányfő kifejtette, hogy az unió fenntartja azt a vállalását is, miszerint kész 2020-ra 30 százalékkal csökkenteni károsanyag-kibocsátását az 1990-es bázisévhez képest. Ennek azonban feltétele, hogy más nemzetközi szereplők hasonlóan ambiciózus vállalásokat tegyenek – ellenkező esetben az uniós kötelezettség csak 20 százalékot tesz ki.

A tagállamok vezetői elfogadták a szabadságjogokat és biztonsági kérdéseket a következő öt évre vonatkozóan összefogó, úgynevezett Stockholmi Programot, amely egyebek közt arról is szól, hogy folytatódik a belső határellenőrzéstől mentes schengeni övezet bővítése. Bajnai Gordon ezzel kapcsolatban elmondta, hogy román részről a schengeni övezethez való csatlakozás céldátuma 2011 tavasza, mely épp a magyar elnökség idejére esik.

Az ülés utáni nyilatkozatokból kiderült, hogy az uniós tagországok támogatnák a pénzügyi tranzakciók nemzetközi méretű adóztatását az újabb válságok elkerülésének érdekében. Zárónyilatkozatukban a vezetők ilyen értelmű felszólítást intéztek a Nemzetközi Valutaalaphoz (IMF).

Euvonal

Van Rompuy plans shake-up of EU summits

The new EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, is planning to shake up the regular gatherings of EU leaders to make them less formulaic so that they result in decisions that have immediate relevancy. The summits, which take place at least four times a year in Brussels, will have their attendance streamlined and will produce conclusions which are "operative" and contain a message which is "readable and visible" for the European public.

Until now, summits have been numerically weighty affairs - involving over 50 people including foreign ministers, and often resulting in impenetrable conclusions the length of a short novel. This is partly due to the fact that the post-meeting statements are carefully pre-written by ambassadors before being passed up the political food chain and partly as a result of the EU increasingly feeling obliged to take note or react to certain political situations beyond its borders as a matter of rote. Speaking about future meetings of EU leaders, which he will start to chair from 2010, Mr Van Rompuy on Thursday evening (10 December) said: "We have to constitute a group, a club, that gets on, that works for the same cause, namely the European Union."

He emphasized that the European Council's principle members are the heads of state and government, calling them the "hard core." Other ministers - such as those in charge of foreign affairs or finance - may attend from "time to time" depending on the agenda.

Meetings will also take place more frequently and result in more political decisions, according to the former Belgian prime minister, known and chosen for his low-key style.

He said the main focus of his two and half year tenure would be the economic situation, suggesting that if the continent wants to hold on to the "European way of life" it has to grow by 2 percent, double the official projections for the EU's battered economy. Mr Van Rompuy intends to hold informal and formal meetings over the coming months so that in half a year's time, the bloc has a "good strategy" for tackling the crisis, which has resulted in soaring unemployment and public debt in several member states. The first informal meeting has been called for February, just ahead of the traditional Spring summit, where governments will try and agree a long term economic plan to bring the union to 2020.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Mr Van Rompuy's address to EU leaders on Thursday evening was an "insightful contribution." Both he and his German counterpart welcomed the fact that the new president will be able to take part in all EU ministerial meetings, giving him an oversight across all policy areas.In addition, several EU leaders welcomed the new slimmed-down format of the meeting, with foreign ministers not invited to take part in this week's two-day summit, the first under the EU's new Lisbon Treaty. It means they can sit around one table and not have to watch each other's interventions on a TV screen, a more relaxed set-up seen as conducive to more fluid discussions.

Euobserver

Ljubljanában lesz az új energiaügyi ügynökség székhelye

A tagállamok megállapodtak arról, hogy a 2011-ben felálló Európai Energiaszabályozói Együttműködési Ügynökségnek a szlovén fővárosban lesz a székhelye (ACER).

Euvonal

Máltán lesz az unió menekültügyi hivatala

Az igazságügyi miniszterek megállapodása értelmében Máltán lesz a székhelye az unió első menekültügyi ügynökségének. Az új intézmény célja, hogy koordinálja és erősítse a tagállamok közötti menekültügyi együttműködést.

Euvonal

Lisbon Treaty comes into force

The European Union's first president Herman Van Rompuy and its new foreign affairs chief took office Tuesday, as the Lisbon Treaty came into force amid concerns at such low-profile leaders for Europe.

Detractors have voiced doubts over whether Van Rompuy and foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, a British peer and formerly EU trade commissioner, were the dream ticket to lead Europe and stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of the United States and China. But speaking at a ceremony in the Portuguese capital, the former Belgian prime minister promised a new era for the 27-member bloc. "We are leading today a new phase in the construction of Europe," he said.

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The Lisbon Treaty has come into force and EU leaders travelled to the Portuguese capital for a ceremony to mark the occasion.

The main goal of the treaty is to reform how the EU functions, including voting rights, now it has been expanded to 27 members.

Talks on reforming European institutions began in 2001 but it has been a difficult process trying to get all member states to agree to the details. All EU countries had to ratify the text before it could be adopted, and the Czech Republic was the last country to do that.

The treaty created a permanent “president” and foreign affairs “chief”. Critics, however, fear a loss of national power to Brussels and there has been a big debate on whether the EU is democratic enough.

AFP-Euronews