According to Portuguese ambassador Alvaro Mendonca, formal negotiations will be opened on 23 July with the aim to have them signed off by EU leaders on 18-19 October.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has claimed that changes to the bloc's forthcoming treaty that he pushed through are going to have significant implications for the EU's free market policy.
NATO Allies agreed to set up a new NATO agency to acquire and manage C-17 strategic transport aircraft on behalf of a group of 15 NATO nations and two Partnership for Peace countries.
Declaring that there were several "open questions" still to be resolved, German chancellor and chair of the talks Angela Merkel called a halt to the 27-member states' gathering shortly before midnight.
British prime minister Tony Blair walked into the EU summit on Thursday saying he must see "significant changes" in the draft EU treaty if there is to be any deal.
EU foreign ministers have agreed on how the new EU treaty should be presented – it should not be called a constitution, and not contain symbols such as an EU flag.
Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested Tony Blair the president of the European Union – a move seen as a way of securing London's support for a new treaty when EU leaders meet in Brussels at the end of this week.
The EU effort - the biggest of its kind in the union's history - is to see 1,600 policemen and 72 civilian officials deploy in January, if UN talks on Kosovo's status end quickly.
The terrorists in Iraq are not Moslems and their actions are of benefit to the enemies of that country, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated here during his meeting with Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, who is now in Tehran.
Serbia aims to achieve official EU entry "candidate" status in 2008 after resuming EU integration talks this week, but an international rift on the status of Kosovo and the fact several war crimes suspects remain at large is keeping optimism in check.
The defense ministers will also seek to boost training for the Afghan military and examine how to reduce the rising toll of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
The EU bloc has taken the final step towards having the world's largest biometric database with 70 million sets of fingerprints, designed to boost border security by allowing EU states to share data on short-stay visas and visa applications from non-EU ci
Former ambassador of the USA in Ukraine Steven Pifer emphasizes that the EU countries and the USA believe that both sides of the conflict are to blame for political crisis in Ukraine.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has called on Europe to boost its climate technology efforts if it wants to stay a world leader and benefit from the business likely to be made from low carbon technology in the future.
The incoming Portuguese EU presidency has indicated it is against opening formal treaty negotiations unless EU leaders meeting in Brussels in two week's time clearly commit themselves to agreeing a new institutional settlement.
French leader Nicolas Sarkozy's remark at the G8 summit about a deal with Tony Blair on a new EU treaty has been followed by renewed pressure for a referendum in the UK, with London planning to insist on keeping the veto on foreign, employment and crimina
The US ambassador in Ukraine William Taylor believes that political crisis in Ukraine has been solved in a legitimate way. “I think that the crisis is solved. The agreement reached by the President, the Prime Minister and the speaker outlined the way, whi
Belgium will get a new prime minister after the conservatives – led by the Christian Democrats – defeated the socialist-liberal coalition in a move that will see the end of Guy Verhofstadt's eight-year term in office
The US president's Tirana speech indicated that Washington is getting impatient that Russia - a UN security council veto holder and G8 member - continues to take Serbia's side in blocking the so-called Ahtisaari plan on Kosovo statehood.
EU states tend to overstate on tax issues and this hampers the union's performance against global competitors, says the EU's tax commissioner, Laszlo Kovacs.
A small group of politicians from around the EU have published a repackaged treaty for the bloc, hoping to feed into the emerging consensus among member states.
Brussels has welcomed news of the capture of Zdravko Tolimir - the third most-wanted Balkan war crimes suspect and close aide of fugitive general Ratko Mladic.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has warned both Poland and the UK not to block attempts to agree a new treaty for the European Union.
Amid the Riga Summit fanfare came the news that NATO Heads of State and Government had endorsed a document entitled “Comprehensive Political Guidance” and had agreed to make it public.
After a marathon round of talks, the EU has finally agreed the outline of a new treaty for the bloc with formal intergovernmental negotiations to start on 23 July.
EU leaders are gathering in Brussels today for the most significant test of the bloc since French and Dutch voters rejected the draft European Constitution two years ago.
The EU is exploring ways to increase the accountability of an obscure "working group" called "Clearing House," which sees EU member state secret service agents meet regularly in Brussels to share counter-terrorism intelligence.
France is already preparing to move against Turkish membership of the European Union by indicating it will block preliminary talks with Ankara on economic and monetary union.
The US president's Tirana speech indicated that Washington is getting impatient that Russia - a UN security council veto holder and G8 member - continues to take Serbia's side in blocking the so-called Ahtisaari plan on Kosovo statehood.
With the G8 summit already seeing low expectations on climate change and development aid goals, initial ideas on how the world's richest countries can help AIDS victims also look set to be watered down.
George Bush has set the scene for a showdown with Putin at the G8 summit in Germany today, with a speech in Prague on Tuesday saying Moscow has "derailed" democracy and reviling the repression of the old Soviet Union.
Two thousand anti-missile shield protestors picketed government buildings in Prague on Monday (4 June) night as US president George Bush landed in the Czech republic to start a week long European tour.
This project was funded, in part, through Grant the opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author (s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State.
