EU Leaders in Greece for Summit
June 20, 2003European Union leaders on Thursday will gather in the Greek town of Porto Carras south of Thessaloniki for a three-day summit. Topping the agenda will be a proposed draft for a EU constitution, reform of the Common Agriculture Policy, immigration and asylum and the leadership of the European Central Bank.
Former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing will formally hand over a draft constitution to EU leaders on Friday. Over the last 16 months, 105 delegates to a constitution convention headed by Giscard have hammered out details of a document that will hopefully prepare the EU as it enlarges to 25 countries next year. While the majority of the most controversial issues have been laid to rest, a few EU governments are expected to do some final tinkering at the Greek summit.
Europe's leaders are also expected to haggle over how best to handle immigration and asylum issues on a EU-wide basis, discussing as well the long-overdue reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The future leadership of the European Central Bank is also on tap, with France almost certain to nominate Bank of France Govenor Jean-Claude Trichet to succeed ECB Presdent Wim Duisenberg.
DW-WORLD has pulled together recent articles relevant to the summit.