EUROPEAN COMMISSION.

Main activities in the week beginning November 25:

* Weekly meeting Wednesday November 27 in Brussels. Points on the agenda:

- Reports on guidelines for state aid linked to general interest services and the State Aid Scoreboard for the candidate countries.

- guidelines for state aid linked to tests for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), dead livestock and slaughterhouse waste.

- Communications on reinforcing co-ordination of Member States' budgetary policies and better practice concerning notifications of budget deficits and national debt .

- Communication on statistics in the Euro-zone.

- Competition policy decisions (methylglucamine and plasterboard cartels).

- Report on savings tax negotiations with non-EU countries

* Trips and visits:

- Monday 25: Mr Nielson attends EU/ACP Parliamentary Assembly (25-26); Messrs Prodi and Verheugen receive the Czech Prime Minister, Vladimir Spidla; Messrs Monti and Liikanen and Mrs Diamantopoulou receive the German Minister for the Economy and Employment, Wolfgang Clement; Mr Fischler meets the Czech Republic's Prime Minister, Vladimir Spidla, and Agriculture Minister, Jaroslav Palas; Mr Bolkestein meets the German Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, and the Secretary of State for the Federal Chancellery, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Berlin); Mr Liikanen receives Georges Jacobs, President of UNICE; Mr Lamy attends the opening, in Zambia, of the Ministerial meeting of COMESA (Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa)

- Tuesday 26: Mr Byrne receives the British Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt; Messrs Prodi and Verheugen meet the presidents of the parliaments of the candidate countries (European Parliament); Mr Liikanen meets the Italian Minister for Productive Activities, Antonio Marzano; Mr Lamy meets Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, and Supachai Panitschpadki, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation

- Wednesday 27: Messrs Solbes and Patten receive the Financial Secretary to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Antony Leung, on the occasion of the signature of the readmission agreement between the EU and Hong Kong; Mrs Reding receives the Polish Culture Minister, Waldemar Dabrowski; Mrs Diamantopoulou receives Hanan Ashrawi, Secretary General of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, and Florian...