But many EU states, fearful of China s growing influence in Africa, want to ensure a successful EU Africa Summit in Lisbon in order to counter last year s China Africa summit in Beijing.

At the European Union s coming EU summit, debate will center on whether to go forward with a mini EU Constitutional Treaty.

Fortunately, the EU Ukraine summit on September 9 in Evian, France, provides the perfect opportunity.

Given this context, the Pakistan EU summit will come and go, with barely the caterers noticing.

That summit comes at an auspicious time, as the EU reviews its European Neighborhood Policy (launched in 2004) and the Eastern Partnership (launched in 2009), ahead of a second grand summit in Budapest under the Hungarian EU presidency in May 2011.

In that context, the timely holding of a second EU Africa summit, as foreseen in the Cairo Declaration, remains an important objective of the EU Africa dialogue.

Whatever is decided about Zimbabwe s participation at the Cannes summit will also have an impact on plans for a major EU Africa Summit in Lisbon this fall, during Portugal s presidency of the EU. During the last Portuguese Presidency (January June 2000), the EU Africa Summit had to be cancelled because of a visa ban on Zimbabwean officials and the reluctance of Africans to attend if Mugabe was excluded.

Unfortunately for the EU, this year s annual summit with Ukraine (on November 22) will likely showcase this failure.

Statements by new EU members leaders at the summit indicated that they were aware of such a possibility.

The Pakistan EU summit will take place on April 10, a follow up to the first meeting last autumn.

At the Riga summit, NATO should challenge the EU to take its proper share of responsibility for success in Afghanistan.

A recent summit of EU leaders addressed energy policy one area where cooperation is not only highly desirable, but necessary.

Romania welcomes the recent confirmation of such a policy by the EU Council.

The foreign ministers meeting held during Germany s EU Council presidency produced the Nuremberg Declaration, which established a framework for closer EU ASEAN partnership.

The place to start is Ukraine. Fortunately, the EU Ukraine summit on September 9 in Evian, France, provides the perfect opportunity.

An important new step was taken with the adoption, at the 14 September Security Council summit, of Council resolution 1624 (2005).

Although the Czech Republic will assume the EU presidency in January, this has not prevented the French President from convening a new EU summit under Sarkozy s leadership in the first half of 2009.

Sarkozy regards an EU economic government as a way to preserve his leadership in the EU beyond France s Council presidency, which is now ending.

That informal summit on interfaith cooperation was followed by the Security Council summit, held on 14 September 2005, chaired by the President of the Philippines.

Drafted the Italian proposal for the EU Common Position on the ICC that consequently led to its adoption before the EU Council in July 2001

At the EU China Summit, we discussed the Chinese government s plans for ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

A special summit of Europe s heads of state has been called, and a Youth Employment Initiative, proposed at the EU Council of Ministers meeting in February, aims to reinforce and accelerate measures that were recommended in a Youth Employment Package in December 2012.

We hope that the Council will stand up to the challenge raised by the summit.

In the wake of Turkey s fraying relations with Russia, the decision to proceed with the planned EU Turkey Summit is an important one.

This tension between Europeans goals and their ability to achieve them is playing out again in the wake of the recent EU summit.

This November, at its Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, the EU will decide on whether to proceed with an Association Agreement with Ukraine.

And, at the most recent EU summit, leaders agreed to commit at least 20 of their entire common budget to climate related spending.

In the context of the upcoming September summit, the EU attaches importance to including strong language in the outcome document which condemns terrorism.

Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who was chairing his first summit as President of the European Council, supports additional financing for Ukraine. But, as the Financial Times reports, several EU countries willingness to come up with the money remains lukewarm at best.

The Security Council also appreciates the assistance given by other international actors, including EU electoral experts.

EU Council Committees COJUR, public international law experts CIVCOM, Rule of Law in the Crisis Management

Yet institutional change, despite the euphoria that greeted the latest EU summit, will take time, for it requires careful structuring and broader public support.

NATO s presidents and prime ministers could simply cross the Baltic Sea from Riga for a half day Afghanistan summit with the EU in Helsinki.

At the last EU summit, Luxembourg s prime minister, Jean Claude Juncker, even suggested that the risk of a social revolution should not be excluded.

As the Council knows, the Secretary General travelled this week to Algiers to attend the Arab Summit.

French and British leaders engaged in a heated quarrel that derailed the subsequent summit, before Britain assumed the rotating six month EU presidency in July.

Hardly anyone on the European Council seems willing even to acknowledge the depth of the EU crisis.

So it is right that the EU Council of Ministers is meeting to grapple with this challenge.

The Council still has not extended the much stricter rules applied to vessels in EU waters to this region. Council Resolution on Fisheries and Combating Poverty.

At this year's world summit, many heads of State and Government addressed the reform of the Security Council.

If the EU wants to be a serious global player to which the US turns as a credible partner (showing up at its summits, for a start), the Pakistan EU summit is a good opportunity to start replacing words with action.

So what is the EU left with? As its hard power ebbs, its soft power, as illustrated by the Copenhagen summit, seems to be very weak.

It was both right and important that the EU Council of Foreign Ministers agreed on sanctions against Iran.

The EU therefore supports the Secretary General's recommendations on improved enforcement of Security Council sanctions, especially arms embargoes.

Lastly, the Summit had reasserted the central responsibility conferred by the Charter on the Council for system wide coordination.