At the European Union s coming EU summit, debate will center on whether to go forward with a mini EU Constitutional Treaty.

But many EU states, fearful of China s growing influence in Africa, want to ensure a successful EU Africa Summit in Lisbon in order to counter last year s China Africa summit in Beijing.

Fortunately, the EU Ukraine summit on September 9 in Evian, France, provides the perfect opportunity.

Given this context, the Pakistan EU summit will come and go, with barely the caterers noticing.

In that context, the timely holding of a second EU Africa summit, as foreseen in the Cairo Declaration, remains an important objective of the EU Africa dialogue.

That summit comes at an auspicious time, as the EU reviews its European Neighborhood Policy (launched in 2004) and the Eastern Partnership (launched in 2009), ahead of a second grand summit in Budapest under the Hungarian EU presidency in May 2011.

Unfortunately for the EU, this year s annual summit with Ukraine (on November 22) will likely showcase this failure.

Statements by new EU members leaders at the summit indicated that they were aware of such a possibility.

Whatever is decided about Zimbabwe s participation at the Cannes summit will also have an impact on plans for a major EU Africa Summit in Lisbon this fall, during Portugal s presidency of the EU. During the last Portuguese Presidency (January June 2000), the EU Africa Summit had to be cancelled because of a visa ban on Zimbabwean officials and the reluctance of Africans to attend if Mugabe was excluded.

The Pakistan EU summit will take place on April 10, a follow up to the first meeting last autumn.

At the Riga summit, NATO should challenge the EU to take its proper share of responsibility for success in Afghanistan.

A recent summit of EU leaders addressed energy policy one area where cooperation is not only highly desirable, but necessary.

Although the Czech Republic will assume the EU presidency in January, this has not prevented the French President from convening a new EU summit under Sarkozy s leadership in the first half of 2009.

The place to start is Ukraine. Fortunately, the EU Ukraine summit on September 9 in Evian, France, provides the perfect opportunity.

At the EU China Summit, we discussed the Chinese government s plans for ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In the wake of Turkey s fraying relations with Russia, the decision to proceed with the planned EU Turkey Summit is an important one.

This tension between Europeans goals and their ability to achieve them is playing out again in the wake of the recent EU summit.

This November, at its Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, the EU will decide on whether to proceed with an Association Agreement with Ukraine.

And, at the most recent EU summit, leaders agreed to commit at least 20 of their entire common budget to climate related spending.

In the context of the upcoming September summit, the EU attaches importance to including strong language in the outcome document which condemns terrorism.

Yet institutional change, despite the euphoria that greeted the latest EU summit, will take time, for it requires careful structuring and broader public support.

NATO s presidents and prime ministers could simply cross the Baltic Sea from Riga for a half day Afghanistan summit with the EU in Helsinki.

At the last EU summit, Luxembourg s prime minister, Jean Claude Juncker, even suggested that the risk of a social revolution should not be excluded.

French and British leaders engaged in a heated quarrel that derailed the subsequent summit, before Britain assumed the rotating six month EU presidency in July.

If the EU wants to be a serious global player to which the US turns as a credible partner (showing up at its summits, for a start), the Pakistan EU summit is a good opportunity to start replacing words with action.

So what is the EU left with? As its hard power ebbs, its soft power, as illustrated by the Copenhagen summit, seems to be very weak.

The region s debt crisis is undermining cooperation within the larger 27 member European Union, resulting in the spectacular failure of the recent summit on the EU budget.

(EU proposal)

EU PROPOSAL

EU Countries

The EU would invite non EU states to do likewise

Whatever happens regarding Zimbabwe in Cannes will directly influence the EU Africa summit later this year. Unfortunately, that controversy may also overshadow the incipient changes in French policy.

WASHINGTON The European Union s most important decision this fall will be whether to sign an Association Agreement with Ukraine at the EU summit in Vilnius on November 28 29.

Indeed, one of Schroeder s first major foreign policy experiences was the EU summit of 1999, where the leaders of France and Britain played rough with the newcomer from Berlin.

The Kremlin, however, seems to see in such vagueness a smokescreen hiding the Union s true intentions, though the recent EU Russia summit provided an opportunity to clear the air.

And, after the recent EU summit agreed on an ultima ratio rescue plan for eurozone countries facing the danger of default, chances are high that it will not materialize.

And the last EU summit announced the creation of a permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM) a sort of European Monetary Fund with an effective lending capacity of 500 billion.

At the Washington Summit last November, the EU suggested a basic principle all markets, all territories, and all actors putting the global financial system at risk should be monitored.

Our intention is to work with our EU colleagues, to build upon the success of the Luxembourg presidency and to deliver a strong European Union contribution to the summit.

Blair s EU disaster

Post EU Depression

EU European Union

EU Countries .......................................................................................................27

The failure of the June EU summit and the bitter clashes between Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac have even inspired some to proclaim the beginning of the end for Europe.

The premia paid by Portugal have actually soared since major ratings agencies, explicitly citing the agreement reached at the EU summit in late March, lowered the country s sovereign debt rating.