General Affairs Council, 13/05/2014, 13 May 2014

Council celebrates 10th anniversary of the 2004 enlargement

The General Affairs Council meeting on 13 May marked the 10 year anniversary of the 2004 enlargement and dealt with preparations for the upcoming European Council meeting.

The General Affairs Council meeting mainly focused on preparations for the next European Council meeting, which will take place on 26 and 27 June.

While relations with Ukraine and Russia and other eastern partners will certainly be high on the agenda, EU leaders are also expected to debate:

• strategic guidelines for legislative and operational planning within the area of freedom, security and justice.
• climate and energy topics with a view to taking a final decision on the new policy framework as quickly as possible and no later than October 2014. The Council will also discuss how to ensure energy security and diversity and how to reduce dependency on third countries.

The European Council will also conclude the European Semester, the half-yearly cycle of economic policy coordination between the member states. EU leaders will exchange views on the action to be taken at national level and endorse country-specific recommendations on structural reforms, employment policies and national budgets.

On 26 June 2014, EU leaders will also commemorate the outbreak of the First World War with a ceremony and a dinner in the city of Ypres.

10th anniversary of the 2004 enlargement

Vytautas Leškevičius, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, representing the 10 countries that joined the EU on 01 May 2004, and Siim Kallas, European Commissioner for Transport, took the floor to celebrate positive achievements of the 2004 enlargement.

"Enlargement has proved again and again to be a success story for the European family", added Evangelos Venizelos, Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece.

Other topics on the agenda

Efficiency of EU financial markets

The Council adopted new rules to promote the efficiency of EU financial markets, amending and replacing the existing directive on markets in financial instruments ("MIFID").

Border surveillance - Frontex

Ministers established new rules for the surveillance of the external sea borders. The rules aim to contribute to prevention of tragedies at sea such as the recent ones in the southern Mediterranean.

Legal migration - Intra corporate-transferees

The Council adopted a directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for temporary assignments in the EU. 

The Council also published its 2013 report on access to documents and adopted several items without discussion.