Foreign Affairs Council will meet in Brussels on Monday to review the international agenda such as the situation in Myanmar and Venezuela, the latest developments on the implementation of the JCPOA (Iran Deal), and Africa-EU relations. Foreign ministers and defense ministers will exchange views and adopt a conclusion on security and defense.
On the margins of the Council, member states wishing to join the EU member states’ treaty-based cooperation framework (PESCO) are expected to jointly sign the notification letter addressed to the Council and high representatives. The aim is to jointly develop defense capabilities and make them available for EU military operations. EU defense ministers will discuss EU-NATO cooperation with the Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg.
The European Economic Area (EEA) Council will hold its 48th meeting in Brussels on Tuesday. The EEA Council will assess the overall functioning of the EEA agreement and in particular cooperation between the EU and the EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) within the framework of the EEA agreement. In addition, the EEA Council, chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Estonia Sven Mikser, will debate measures to develop the European data economy. They will discuss the implications for the EEA agreement of the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU and the Eastern Partnership. An informal political dialogue with the EEA EFTA States will precede the EEA Council meeting.
Large-scale tax evasion using offshore accounts known as the Paradise Papers are up for debate on Tuesday in the European Parliament.
The General Affairs Council will meet in Brussels on Wednesday. The Council will discuss the future of the cohesion policy and structural and investment funds.
European Parliament on Wednesday will vote on an informal agreement with member states on new rules to protect EU industries, and consumers from dumped and subsidized imports from third countries and will include provisions on compliance with international environmental and labor standards in anti-dumping investigations.
Economic and Financial Affairs Council will gather in Brussels on Friday. Ministers will prepare negotiations with the European Parliament on the EU's general budget for 2018. The negotiations will be held at a conciliation committee meeting the same day. The Parliament is asking for total commitments to be increased to €162.6 billion and total payments to €146.7 billion. The Council set total commitments at €158.9 billion and total payments at €144.4 billion.
-Last week
Negotiations for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union continued with the sixth round of talks last week. In addition to rights and Irish border issues, a financial settlement was also at the center of the agenda. Both sides are trying to agree on an amount that varies between €20 billion and €100 billion. The U.K. government has two weeks to make concessions in its Brexit negotiations if it wants to move on to trade talks this year, the EU’s negotiator said.
Defense Ministers of NATO member countries gathered in Brussels last week for a two-day meeting. They decided to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan and to establish a cybersecurity operations center. They also agreed to create two new command structures; one to protect sea communication lines between the U.S. and Europe and the other envisages improving military troop and equipment mobility in Europe.
The EU has increased its 2017 growth forecast for Turkey by more than two percentage points, according to the European Economic Forecast Autumn report published on Thursday. Brussels’ latest set of economic forecasts project that the Turkish economy will grow 5.3 percent in 2017, up from the union's previous estimate of 3 percent in May.