GENERAL AFFAIRS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS COUNCIL: MINISTERS SET TO TACKLE FINANCING, MACEDONIAN MEMBERSHIP BID.

Summit preparations.

Ministers will continue the vexed discussion about the EU's future financing for 2007-2013, with the aim of reaching a deal at the December 15-16 EU summit (see also separate article in this section).

British officials signalled on December 9 that the UK Presidency would be in "listening mode" at the December 12 meeting, and would be looking to issue revised compromise proposals sometime between then and the summit.

Ministers will look at draft conclusions on a number of topics for the summit, and two other documents: a draft declaration on the Mediterranean and the Middle East and, regarding migration, a draft 'priority actions' paper focusing on Africa and the Mediterranean.

The incoming Austrian and Finnish Presidencies of the EU are due to present a draft Council programme for 2006.

Balkans.

A discussion is planned on whether the EU should give the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) the status of EU candidate country, as recently recommended by the European Commission (see Europe Information 3005). France was reportedly non-committal on the subject in the Committee of Member States' Permanent Representatives to the EU (COREPER) on December 8, so the matter may not be entirely clear-cut.

EU foreign policy chief Solana and EU Enlargement Commissioner Rehn are set to present a joint paper on the future EU role and contribution in UN-administered Kosovo (see separate article in Section IV).

Ministers may discuss the appointment of a new EU...