The European Commission proposes to make the Stability and Growth Pact more ?intelligent?.

Rising oil prices, growing demand for energy and climate change livens up nuclear energy discussion. The rapidly rising oil prices of the summer have renewed discussions within the European institutions as to what determines a correct energy policy for the EU. Calls for a common European energy policy, the foundations of which are included in the draft constitutional treaty, and greater solidarity among EU member states in their management of strategic oil reserves are being repeatedly voiced.

The extension of the European Union to ten new member states became a reality on 1 May 2004. The new member states not only enrich the Union merely through their economic potential but they also bring their existing constitutional traditions and legal cultures, which in turn will influence the development of European constitutional law. When we examine these two areas, we find the relationship between church and state in the new member states to be of particular interest. What form do these relations take and what legal relations involving church and state do the new member states bring with them?

The atrocities in Beslan highlight divergences in EU and Russian responses to terror. EU-Russian relations have a come a long way in the intervening years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Russian Federation. Productive dialogue has been considerable, with the 1997 ratification of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) between the European Union and Russia forming the legal basis for bilateral relations for an initial period of ten years. The PCA?s major objective is economic, although it also provides for limited political dialogue and co-operation.

The opening of accession negotiations with Turkey receives mixed signals