Press Releases

An informal meeting of EU foreign ministers on the future of Europe will take place on 27 and 28 May in Stift Klosterneuburg near Vienna. This meeting will give the ministers an opportunity to exchange views on the subject in preparation for the June European Council.

“At this small-scale informal meeting we want to deepen and concretise the discussion we began in Salzburg and in the margins of the March European Council. Several of my colleagues expressed a desire to have more time to discuss a number of issues relating to the future of the EU. The plan is to come up with specific proposals on how the EU could function better. This includes better crisis management, more consular cooperation, better law-making and more transparency and subsidiarity control in the Union’s decision-making process. We also want to provide clearer information to the public on the subject of enlargement", Plassnik said.

“Our aim is to sketch out a work plan for these particular issues for the June European Council. It is not primarily about the judicial fate of the Constitutional Treaty. As we know, this issue cannot be settled satisfactorily and conclusively for all 25 Member States at the present time", she added.

Plassnik said that the French proposals for institutional improvements presented at the beginning of the week would be discussed at the informal meeting. “We set ourselves the goal at the beginning of the Presidency of getting the debate on the future of Europe going again. The ideas and proposals we have received from various quarters over the past few weeks are important contributions to this end. The French proposals, too, are welcome food for thought. We now need to put all the ideas on the table and try to distill concrete results."