” “”External relations” are in the limelight this week in Strasbourg, with the 25-member EU Parliament welcoming 3 heads of State: at the opening of the session, in the late afternoon today, the EU Parliament is going to meet Evo Morales, president of Bolivia; the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is expected tomorrow; the Greek president, Carolos Papoulias, instead will come on Wednesday. The EU Parliament is gathered at the plenary meeting until Thursday to discuss, among other things, the EU budget, the research framework program and the state of human rights across the world. Tomorrow, still in Strasbourg, the EU Commission, led by Barroso, will officially take position on the accession of Romania and Bulgaria. Such position concerns whether the deadline that had been set out for accession to the EU (January 1st 2007) should be respected or not, or if it should be postponed by one year. The final decision, however, shall be taken by the EU Council. Still today, the Finnish Parliament approved the Constitutional Treaty, which now has to be officially ratified by Helsinki’s Government. Finland, which will chair the EU in the second half of 2006, is the sixteenth country that ratifies the Treaty, which however is still waiting for the go-ahead from all member states.
