EUROPEAN COUNCIL THE PRESIDENT
The meeting of the European Council in Brussels on 25 and 26 March 2010, will focus on two issues: the economy and climate change.
As is customary, we will start with an exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament.
In our first session, I should like us to have a discussion on the new European strategy for jobs and growth. We need to reach agreement on its main elements, including governance as well as the nature and scope of the EU headline targets, which will guide the implementation of the strategy. This discussion should allow us to formally adopt the strategy in June.
Over dinner, we will discuss the main issues on the agenda of the forthcoming G20 Summit in Toronto, which we will prepare more substantially at our June meeting. I would like to have a brief exchange of views on what should be our priorities for the G20, so as to guide the preparatory work. José Manuel Barroso will introduce this subject.
Then I suggest that, still over dinner, we turn to economic government and coordination of policies, following up on our February discussion. Felipe González will brief us on the work of the Reflection Group as regards the coordination of economic policies. We should then focus on the pressing challenge of competitiveness and balance of payments developments. While budgetary developments have been monitored under the Stability and Growth Pact, insufficient attention has been given to divergences in competitiveness within the EU economies and externally. This is not only relevant for euro area member states, but for all EU Member States, given the depth of economic integration within the Single Market. The need for policy action is particularly pressing in Member States showing persistently large current account deficits and large competitiveness losses. In our discussion, I would like us to focus on the following questions. Do we agree that these issues should be fully taken into account in policy making at national level? Should we complement our budgetary surveillance framework with a monitoring of competitiveness developments, on the basis of a simple set of indicators, allowing for an early detection of possible divergences and timely policy reactions?
On Friday, we will talk about the follow-up to the Copenhagen conference on climate change, looking at how a new dynamic can be brought to the negotiation process. Whilst keeping our objective of a legally binding agreement, we should agree on a more step-by-step approach, in order to help get the negotiation process back on track. I will ask Cathy Ashton to give her view on how we could better engage our main strategic partners. After that discussion, we will finalise the conclusions of our meeting.
I am looking forward to a fruitful discussion on all these important matters.
H. VAN ROMPUY
FOR FURTHER DETAILS: Dirk De Backer - Spokesperson of the President +32 (0)2 281 9768 - +32 (0)497 59 99 19 Jesús Carmona - Deputy Spokesperson of the President
