§ 25. Mr. RuffleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the agenda for the forthcoming Belgian presidency. [158634]
§ Mr. VazThe Belgian Government take over the presidency on 1 July 2001. They have not yet announced their programme. But the Belgian presidency have been mandated to take forward the wide public consultation on the future of Europe called for in the Nice Treaty and launched on 7 March. In the enlargement process, it is scheduled to tackle nine chapters of the "acquis communautaire", thereby sustaining the pace of the enlargement negations. It will carry forward the implementation of the Lisbon economic reform agenda to deliver more and better jobs. Discussion of external trade will focus on efforts to launch a new WTO trade round. The Belgian presidency will also take forward work on the European Security and Defence Policy, preparing a decision by Heads of State and Government for the EU to become operational in military crisis management, by the December Summit in Laeken at the latest. The Laeken Summit will also review progress on the Justice and Home Affairs work programme set at Tampere in October 1999. The Belgian presidency will also witness the final preparations to introduce euro notes and coins in January 2002.