EUROPEAN COMMISSION.

Main activities in the week beginning May 23:

*Weekly meeting: Wednesday May 25 in Brussels. Items on the agenda:

- Declaration on the fundamental objectives of sustainable development;

- Communication and draft recommendation on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities;

- Proposal for and EU action on the European Culture Capital initiative for 2007 to 2019;

- Communication on youth policies;

- Decision on Italy's greenhouse gas emission allocation plan.

* Trips and visits

- Monday May 23

Mr Barroso to receive Greenland's deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Josef Motzfeld and junior Minister F.F. Inuuteq Holm Olsen; Mr Verheugen to attend a meeting of the "Steering Board" organised by the European Defence Agency; Mr Frattini to receive Austria's Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik; Mrs Kroes in Madrid; Mr Piebalgs to receive Latvia's Culture Minister Helena Demakovy, and Poland's Economic Affairs Minister Jacek Piechota; Mr Borg to receive Alex West of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, Senegalese Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Djibo Leyti, Galicia's regional Fisheries Minister Lopez Vega, and the regional Agriculture and Fisheries Minister for Lower Saxony Heinrich Ehlen; Mr Potocnik to receive Professor Wolfgang Schurer, Chairman of the Lindau Foundation of Nobel Prize winners, and Alain Pompidou, chairman of the European Patents Office; Mr Dimas in Berlin, to attend a conference of environment Ministers; Mrs Fischer Boel to receive South Africa's Agriculture Minister Angela Thoko Didiza; Mr Kyprianou to attend the e-health European Ministerial conference (Tromso, Norway); Louis Michel to receive Ali Lamine Zene, Niger's Economic Affairs and Finance Minister; Mr Spidla in Prague (23-24) to attend the "who will guarantee our future?" conference on birth and migration and the OSCE Economic Forum on demographic crises; Mr McCreevy to attend the 10th international pension & employee benefits lawyers association conference (Vienna); Mr McCreevy to hold talks with Austria's Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser (Vienna); Mrs Hubner to receive Frits Schlingemann, UNEP regional director for Europe; Mrs Reding to receive Eutelsat CEO Giuliano Berretta, Tessa Jowell, Britain's Minister for Culture, Communication and Sport, and Disney CEO Michael Eisner; Mr Kallas to receive Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini; Mr Mandelson to receive Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary-General...