EU Council Monitor - 19/12/08

Czech ambassador outlines EU presidency priorities
"The Czech Republic’s top official in Brussels says that tackling ‘obstacles’ which ‘prevent Europe from fulfilling its economic potential’ will be one of the priorities of her country’s EU presidency
Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, Milena Vicenova also hopes that at the end of the six-month presidency “no-one will think that we Czechs are eurosceptic.”

The 52-year-old also pledged to “concentrate all our energy” on resolving the current impasse on the stalled Lisbon treaty. Vicenova, one of the few female ambassadors in Brussels, was outlining her country’s priorities when it takes over the EU presidency from France on 1 January.
“I know quite a few people will be asking whether the Czechs really are eurosceptic,” she said.
“There is no doubt that our presidency comes at no easy time for Europe and the rest of the world. It will be a real challenge.”

She said the presidency will focus on ‘3 E’s’ – the economy, energy and external relations.
On the economic front, she told a packed audience that the French presidency deserved praise for its “prompt, effective and efficient” response to the global financial crisis." [TheParliament]

Conclusion of the Council (11 and 12/12)
The complete conclusions. It includes:
“As regards action by the European Union, the European Council supports in particular: an increase in intervention by the European Investment Bank of EUR 30 billion in 2009/2010, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises” [Europa]

Paris ACTA meetings wrap up; we're safe until March 2009
"Negotiations on the controversial and largely secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) race ever onward, but the process isn't moving quite as fast as proponents had hoped. No deal will now happen before the end of the year, nor before a new US administration takes the reins in late January.

Another round of ACTA negotiations wrapped up yesterday in Paris, this one hosted by the EU and chaired by the French Trade Minister. Most governments involved in the process appear bent on saying almost nothing about it due the "delicate nature" of the negotiating process, but Japan's Foreign Ministry has released the barest of details from this week's meeting (and in English, no less).

The meeting description is bureaucratically bland ("Participants reaffirmed their goal to combat global infringements of IPR, particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy, by increasing international cooperation, strengthening the framework of practices that contribute to effective enforcement, and strengthening relevant IPR enforcement measures themselves." Fascinating!), but does note that countries involved shared information on "fighting IPR infringements on the Internet." It remains unclear what may come of such discussions, but it certainly sounds as though ACTA will in fact extend beyond creating a better enforcement mechanism for stopping crates of Simpsons rip-off T-shirts." [ArsTechnica]