EUROPEAN COUNCIL: EU LEADERS CALLED ON TO MAKE BIG CHOICES AT JUNE 17-18 SUMMIT.

The June 14 General Affairs Council put the final touches to this draft set of conclusions, which now has to be amplified by defence and external relations issues.

The annotated agenda for the European Council (Summit) is available in English on our EISnet site: www.eis.be > Advanced search > Reference = EURE;2877;103.

Institutions.

Government leaders from the 25 Member States will be gathering under the heading of Inter-Governmental Conference working sessions to try to hammer out an agreement on the draft Constitutional Treaty. The sessions are scheduled for Thursday afternoon (June 17), then Friday, June 18, from midday to 1.15 pm. They will also be held during Friday lunchtime and in the afternoon if need be.

The other major institutional issue is of course the process for appointing the next European Commission President and the choice of the next Secretary-General to the Council/High Representative for the CFSP and the deputy General Secretary-General. With two days still to go before the session, all the bets are off for Commission President, but the names most often mentioned are still those of Premier Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium and Premier Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg.

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Thursday, June 17

2 pm to 6 pm: IGC working session

5 pm to 9.30 pm: working dinners involving EU government leaders, and, separately, Foreign Ministers

Friday, June 18

9.30 am -10 am: European Council meeting with the European Parliament President, Pat Cox

10 am -11.30 am: European Council working session

11.30 am: family photograph and press conferences

midday-1.15 pm: second IGC working session

1.30 pm - 2.45: IGC working lunch (if necessary)

3 pm 6 pm: third IGC working session (if necessary)

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Justice & Home Affairs: Tampere II.

The draft Summit Conclusions call on the Council and Commission to come up with a successor programme by the end of 2004 to the "Tampere" blueprint adopted in October 1999, which set out how to create an "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice". They welcome the Commission's broadly positive assessment, contained in its June 2 Communication, of achievements over the past five years in this domain. They take note of recent breakthroughs, such as on the asylum procedures Directive, the European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims and the Framework Decision on mutual recognition of confiscation orders. The priority for the coming months will be setting up the EU Border Management Agency by 2005, agreeing funds for programmes to...