Europese Unie komende week in het teken van Azië (en)
EUOBSERVER / WEEKLY AGENDA (4 - 10 October) - A galaxy of Asian leaders will pass through the EU capital in a series of summits next week, while MEPs vote on the EU budget for 2011 and on staff rules for the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Belgian caretaker prime minister Yves Leterme will on Monday (4 October) and Tuesday at the Royal Palace in Brussels welcome delegations from the 27 EU countries and 16 Asian countries at an Asem summit. The most prestigious event on the Belgian EU presidency's watch, the leaders of China, France, Germany and Japan have confirmed they will come. Twenty seven other countries are sending top people. Australia, Indonesia, Italy, the Philippines, Russia and the UK are coming at deputy leader or foreign minister level.
The official agenda is a beauty pageant of topical issues: "global economic governance ... sustainable development ... human rights ... non-proliferation."
But the Brussels press pack will be out to see what happens between China and Japan. Japan's arrest last month of a Chinese fisherman in waters near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands sparked a major row. Japan's PM, Naoto Kan, was still in fighting mood on Friday, warning the world about China's military build-up, and has called a pre-emptive media lunch on Monday.
Meanwhile, China and Myanmar/Burma have reportedly asked to soften wording on human rights in the summit communique. Myanmar/Burma, one of the world's most repressive regimes, is likely to come under pressure to improve standards in its November elections.
EU leaders will on Wednesday squeeze in two bilateral summits. The EU-South Korea meeting is to see the signature of a landmark Free Trade Agreement. The EU-China event is to cover climate change and global governance as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan security.
European Parliament business is to be dominated by a budget committee vote on Thursday on EU financing for 2011. Member states want to take out almost €4 billion from the proposed €127 billion pot in line with austerity measures at domestic level. But MEPs will be up for a scrap after gaining new legal powers over EU farm spending in the Lisbon Treaty.
Lady not for turning
The legal affairs committee will on Wednesday decide whether or not to include a special clause on "indicative recruitment targets" in EEAS staff regulations. The foreign affairs committee is pushing for the clause in order to get more Central and Eastern European staff into the diplomatic corps.
Foreign affairs MEPs will earlier on Tuesday grill in public Austrian diplomat Hans Dietmar Schweisgut to see if he is fit to run the EEAS embassy in Japan.
The developments have thoroughly annoyed EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton. The British baroness thinks MEPs are going beyond a July agreement on their role in EEAS recruitment. She wants the EEAS ambassador hearings to be held later down the line in the nomination process and to take place behind closed doors.
The Western Balkans will also feature on the EU agenda. The parliament will in a mini-plenary in Brussels on Thursday vote whether or not to let people from Albania and Bosnia enter the EU without visas from January. And neighbourhood commissioner Stefan Fuele will in The Hague on Wednesday meet with UN prosecutor Serge Brammertz and Dutch FM Maxime Verhagen to discuss Serbia's enlargement prospects in relation to Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic.
The parliament will close the week on Thursday with a debate on the 20th anniversary of German reunification - a turning point in the Union's post-Cold War history. Former Eastern Germany premier Lothar de Maiziere and ex-EU commission president Jacques Delors will speak at the event.
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