GENERAL AFFAIRS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS COUNCIL: EU FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTERS LOOK OUTWARDS WHILE LOOKING INWARDS.

PositionBrief Article

IGC.

Meeting as the General Affairs Council on Monday morning, Ministers will examine preparations for the EU Summit on December 12-13 (which will notably cover economic growth, the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, EU enlargement, and foreign and defence policy). They will also debate the European Commission's work programme for 2004 (which itself focuses largely on completing accession of the ten new Member States). And they will hold a debate on enlargement itself, as the Commission presents its recent reports and strategy paper to the Council.

External Relations.

Meeting as the External Relations Council, Ministers are likely to adopt Conclusions on relations between Serbia and Montenegro and Kosovo and on the November 18 donors' conference (see separate article in Section V), and to discuss Iraq and Iran. The Middle East, Africa (the EU-Africa dialogue, a possible EU-funded "peace facility", and cotton) and EU-Russia relations in the wake of the November 6 Summit will also be discussed. Policy approaches are also likely to be agreed on EU links to third countries in...

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