Mr Janez Janša, the President of the Council of the EU, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, highlighted the priorities of the Slovenian EU Presidency and the future of the European Union: a launch of a new, three-year cycle of the Lisbon Strategy with introduction of a ‘fifth freedom’- free movement of knowledge; energy and climate change; stabilisation of the financial markets; completion of the network of Stabilisation and Association Agreements in the Western Balkans and ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon in the Member States.
Mr Dragutin Mate, Slovenian Minister for Interior, gave a presentation on the recent accomplishments and on-going projects of the EU in the field of Home Affairs and on the cooperation with the Western Balkan countries in this very specific field.
Mr Janez Potočnik, Commissioner for science and research, spoke about achieving the goals of the Lisbon Strategy. He emphasised that the Lisbon Strategy is the EU key policy instrument to face global challenges such as climate change, new emerging economies and aging populations.
The XXXIX COSAC was informed about the decision of the Ljubljana COSAC Chairpersons Meeting on 18 February 2008 to appoint Ms Loreta Raulinaitytė, Permanent Representative of the Seimas of the
The XXXIX COSAC adopted the 9th Bi-annual Report drafted by the COSAC Secretariat. This report covered the following topics:
- Involvement of national parliaments in the ratification process of the Treaty of Lisbon;
- The Treaty of
- The
- Enlargement of the Schengen Area;
- Involvement of the parliaments of the European Union in negotiations on accession to the EU.
A Contribution which, inter alia, included proposals for further development of the mechanism, through which the Commission directly transmits its legislative proposals and consultation papers to national parliaments, was adopted by consensus. It was sent to the Presidents of the EU Institutions and published in the Official Journal of the EU.