Eerste namen genoemd voor 'EU reflectiegroep' Sarkozy (en)
The first names for who should head a 'reflection group' on the EU's future have started to be floated, with the ex-president of Latvia tipped as the hottest candidate.
The new group is expected to be given the green light at an EU leaders summit on Friday (14 December).
It is the brainchild of French president Nicolas Sarkozy who made the setting up of such a group a condition for Paris letting Turkey proceed with its EU accession negotiations.
Mr Sarkozy had wanted the group to focus on a number of contentious issues, including the final borders of Europe.
But the mandate of the reflection group has been severely watered down so that it will not touch upon the future borders of Europe and further enlargement or institutional and budgetary issues.
"We have first decided what we definitely do not want the group to discuss, so the remaining scope has ended up as quite weak," one EU diplomat commented.
Some member states wanted to make sure that the reflection group would not send a negative message to countries that want to join the EU, while others, such as the UK, did not want the group to create the impression that the bloc is planning to push for more political integration or re-open debate on its institutional set-up.
The reflection group is expected to set out its ideas on the EU's challenges for 2020 to 2030 in mid 2010.
This timetable is so that it will not interfere with the French EU presidency in the second half of 2008, which is due to reflect on the future reform of the bloc's budget.
According to French daily Le Monde, following a specific request by the French government, Portugal, the current EU presidency, is planning to hold a debate during Friday's summit in order to get agreement on who should chair the wise group.
So far, four names have been floated among diplomats - former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Jorna Ollila, chairman of Nokia, Felippe Gonzales, the former Spanish prime minister and Pat Cox, ex-president of the European Parliament.