” “The EU leaders are going to attend two extremely important meetings in Brussels today. The Competitiveness Council (which brings together the ministers of competitiveness from all member states, led by the Finnish Minister of Industry and Trade, Mauri Pekkarinen) has to pass a judgement on the seventh Framework Research Program for 2007-2013, approved in June by the EU Parliament. "But political agreement on the subject is essential", explains a note from the chairman on duty of the twenty-five member states, given the controversial passage about the funding of research into embryo stem cells, which will receive approximately 0.5% of the total (50 billion euros). The results of the meeting are expected to be announced in the early afternoon. The Council for Justice and Internal Affairs, headed by the Finnish Minister of Justice, Leena Luhtanen, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kari Rajamäki, is going to meet today. In this case, the agenda is about "an exchange of opinions about the Commission’s communication on the review of the The Hague program, for creating a space of justice and security across the EU". The Council is expected to hold three sessions on this topic, which will then be dealt with by the Tampere meeting in September.” “
