EUROPEAN COMMISSION.

Main events scheduled for the week beginning May 17

* Weekly meeting: Wednesday May 26 in Brussels. On the agenda:

- Commission: priorities in the field of translation: action plan after May 1;

- Preliminary Draft Amending Budget for 2004, concerning own resources;

- Report on excise duty rates on alcohol;

- Consolidation of legislation on border crossings;

- Negotiating mandate for the participation of Norway in the Border Control Agency;

- Communication on the strategy with regard to ultra-peripheral regions.

* Meetings and visits:

- Monday 24: Mario Monti visits Potsdam and Leipzig on the invitation of Germany's Eastern Lander; Erkki Liikanen participates in the Round Table on Industry and Telecommunications; Pavel Telicka at a meeting with the European Chambers of Commerce; Loyola de Palacio at the International Energy Forum in Amsterdam; Sandra Kalniete attends the opening ceremony of the Latvia Week at European Commission and the Council; Margot Wallstrom in Copenhagen; Poul Nielson in Ethiopia (24-25).

- Tuesday 25: Viviane Reding receives the Chinese deputy Education Minister Zhang Xinsheng; Messrs Prodi, Kinnock (25), Monti (25), Kyprianou (25) and Michaele Schreyer (26) attend the European Economic and Social Committee's conference on the financial perspective; Chris Patten receives Sri Lankan Minister for Foreign Affairs Lakshman Kadirgamar and Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Adnan Terzic; Pascal Lamy in Mexico (25-28) for the EU-Latin America-Caribbean Summit in Guadalajara; Sandra Kalniete participation in the information...