Laeken European Council
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The Laeken European Council was held at the royal palace at Laeken, Belgium on 14-15 December 2001.
About 80,000 people protested outside the European Council; some violence occurred, with a small group of protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at Belgian police, although there was much less violence than there was at the Gothenburg European Council in July of the same year.
The main matters the Laeken European Council dealt with were:
- new measures in the area of Justice and Home Affairs: the European arrest warrant, a common definition of terrorism, and EUROJUST
- the seats of 10 new EU agencies -- after hours of disagreement, the European Council failed to reach an agreement and decided to leave the decision until next year.
- the impending introduction of Euro cash (the European Council met with the Finance ministers to consider this)
- the progress of EU enlargement
- the adoption of the Laeken Declaration on the Future of Europe, establishing the European Convention, to be presided over with former President of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, as President of the Convention, and former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene as Vice-Presidents. The Convention was tasked with drafting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, and would have about 60 members, drawn from national governments, national Parliamentarians, the European Parliament, and the European Commission, and include representatives from the candidate countries. The declaration reviews the progress of European integration over the last fifty years, tracing it back to its origins in the horrors of World War II, and poses a number of questions to be answered by the Convention.
