Home > Laeken European Council
The Laeken European Council was held at the royal palace at Laeken, Belgium on 14-15 December 2001.About 80,000 people protested outside the European Council; some violence occurred, with a small group of protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at Belgian police, although there was much less violence than there was at the Gothenburg European Council in July.
The main matters the Laeken European Council dealt with were:
- new measures in the area of Justice and Home Affairs: the European arrest warrant, a common definition of terrorism, and EUROJUST
- the seats of 10 new EU agencies -- after hours of disagreement, the European Council failed to reach an agreement and decided to leave the decision until next year.
- the impending introduction of Euro cash (the European Council met with the Finance ministers to consider this)
- the progress of EU enlargement
- the adoption of the Laeken Declaration on the Future of Europe, establishing a convention, to be presided over with former President of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, as President of the Convention, and former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene as Vice-Presidents. The Convention will have about 60 members, drawn from national governments, national Parliamentarians, the European Parliament, and the European CommissionThe European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities is the executive of the European Union. Its primary roles are to propose and enact legislation, and to act as 'guardian of the treaties' which provide the legal basis for the EU., and will in addition include representatives from the candidate countries. The declaration reviews the progress of European integration over the last fifty years, tracing it back to its origins in the horrors of World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, and poses a number of questions to be answered by the Convention.
The Presidency Conclusions are available ([1]) from the Presidency website.
The Laken Declaration on the Future of Europe is available in English ([2]) from the website of the Council of the European UnionThe Council of the European Union forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). It contains ministers of the governments of each of the member-states of the EU. The Council of the European Union is sometimes re.
European UnionFor other uses, see EU (disambiguation). The European Union or EU is a supranational organisation of 25 European states. It was established with that name by the Treaty on European Union (commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty) in 1992 but many aspects o
