The
European Council of Ministers has agreed these amendments to the Directive on excise duty on tobacco products, it has been announced on Tuesday.
At its session of 7 December, the
European Council of Ministers will decide about Macedonia's progress in the Euro-Integrations, just like the European Commission did it, but it will not give us a concrete date for starting negotiations as long as we do not solve the name issue.
And, of course, I want the
European Council of Ministers to adopt our recommendation for negotiations with FYROM," he said.
So we will see a permanent president of the
European Council of Ministers (albeit probably low profile Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy rather than pushy ex-UK PM Tony Blair); an EU foreign minister; and more power for the European Parliament.
There has long been speculation that former prime minister Blair would seek the new role of long-term president of the
European Council of Ministers, due to be created under the Lisbon Treaty.
Representatives of the
European Council of Ministers and of the European Commission participated in the meeting and expressed there appreciation and continuing support of this important interparliamentary relationship.
But the European economic recovery plan that was recently reaffirmed by the
European Council of Ministers is mainly focused on national measures to support domestic demand.
However, for the last three months the situation was deadlocked, because the proposal was not supported by the
European Council of Ministers - the body that represents national governmental ministers.
Salam Fayyad expressed disappointment at the decision of the
European Council of Ministers to upgrade relations between the European Union and Israel.
But corporations and governments around the world are also realizing that institutions situated in Brussels, like the European Commission, European Parliament and
European Council of Ministers, churn out rules that affect them -- and not always in a good way.
The
European Council of Ministers has agreed to allow all EU nations to share access to genetic records, fingerprints, and traffic offenses, as well as allow national police to operate across borders.
The three associations intend to submit the petition with all the signatures to the European Parliament, the European Commission and the
European Council of Ministers.