The chair of the European Council will be taken over by Germany on 1st January. Chancellor Angela Merkel recently illustrated her plans for the six months’ term to Berlin’s Parliament, while last Tuesday she met the Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen, who is going to step down in ten days’ time. Merkel illustrated an "ambitious" plan, which also insists on the "common" foreign policy and the "necessary" continuation of the Constitutional process. In the meantime, Germany opened an official website for the chairmanship, available in three languages (German, English and French), at www.eu2007.de. The website also contains the agenda for the period January-June, the highlight of which is the presentation of the plan to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 17th January (on that date, the Assembly should be chaired by the leader of the German People’s Party, Hans-Gert Poettering, to be voted by the Floor the day before). The special summit of the heads of state and government of the 27 member states has been confirmed for 24th and 25th March, when they will sign a "Statement on the future of Europe" about the values and goals of the integration process, the reforms to be made, the process of the Constitutional Treaty and the future member states.
