This WEEK in the European Union
LEIGH PHILLIPS
27.06.2008 @ 17:44 CET
EUOBSERVER / WEEKLY AGENDA (30 June - 6 July) - On 1 July France takes over chairmanship of the six-month rotating presidency of the council of the European Union from the out-going EU presidency, Slovenia.
France takes up the helm during one of the EU's – and the world's – most difficult periods in many years as the twin oil and food crises eclipse almost every other policy agenda item, and the fall-out of the negative result in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty leaves much of France's plans for its moment in the European spotlight not quite on the shelf but certainly diminished in import.
France takes over the EU presidency on Tuesday (Photo: EUobserver.com)
On Tuesday, there will be a working meeting concerning the programme of the French
Presidency between the members of the European Commission and the French president, prime minister and members of the French government.
But the French presidency really kicks off with its first major event, tackling one of the biggest issues on its plate, the food crisis.
On Thursday, the presidency has organised along with the commission "Who will feed the world?", a major conference in the European Parliament on global food security.
Agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and development commissioner Louis Michel will participate, together with Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the parliament. French agriculture minister Michel Barnier and foreign minister Bernard Kouchner will also attend, as will the director-general of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy, and the director-general of the Food and agriculture organisation of the United Nations, Jacques Diouf.
Skyrocketing food prices have produced waves of riots in the poorest countries of the world in recent months, but it is not only the third world that has been affected. Consumers throughout Europe go to the supermarket and week after week they see the price of everyday items eating further and further into their budget.
The conference aims to take on the triple-headed policy challenge – food, energy and the environment - and discuss the challenges facing agriculture in this unprecedented period, including the question of the future of agriculture in developing countries.
Social agenda
The other main event in the coming week will be the unveiling of the commission's social package, the 'Renewed Social Agenda'.
Almost as ambitious in scope as the commission's climate and energy package launched in January, the social package had been held off until after the Irish referendum out of fear that controversial elements within it could give ammunition to No campaigners and scupper the treaty - in particular an expected proposal for a directive on pan-European access to health-care, and another on protecting Europeans against discrimination.
The former may on the face of things seem harmless enough, but the devil, as ever, is in the details, and some member states worry about potential additional stresses to public health-care systems.
Anti-discrimination is an equally hot-button issue, with some in a number of the new member states and social conservatives across the union alarmed at the possible consequences of legislation if it includes the measures to prevent discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. A number of businesses too are not particularly enthusiastic about what they say are the additional costs involved with protecting against age discrimination.
A working paper on the situation of the Roma in Europe, some of the most actively discriminated against on the continent – and the subject of violent attacks by racists in Italy in recent weeks, is to address the difficulties faced by this community and focus on mechanisms for inclusion.
The package will also look at the promotion of cross-border youth volunteering and include a green paper on the challenges of immigration in the educational context. A recent commission study found that the children of migrants tend to do poorly at school. The green paper will look at options for overcoming such problems.
Elsewhere next week, European environment ministers are to meet informally on Thursday and Friday in the Domain of Saint Cloud, France. An informal meeting of energy ministers will also meet there on the Friday and Saturday.
The next sitting of the European Parliament is not until 7 July, in Strasbourg.