Owing to a clash with the proposals on economic governance scheduled for 29 September, the budget review proposals initially due to be announced that same day should be made public in early October, say EU sources. As planned, the commissioners of the EU attended a two-day seminar on 1 and 2 September at Val Duchesse castle near Brussels to discuss the two hot topics of the summer: the Roma situation and the floods in Pakistan. The work programme for 2011, the industrial policy of the EU and the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty in the past nine months were also debated.

Budget review proposals are still being developed. In principle, the Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget, Janusz Lewandowski, will present the first documents in early October. No precise date has yet been fixed, according to a civil servant. An orientation debate also took place, on 1-2 September, about industrial policy. Climate Change Commissioner Connie Hedegaard took part in it and exchanged ideas on how her directorate-general could contribute to it.

On the opening day of the seminar, Commissioners László Andor (social affairs), Cecilia Malmström (home affairs) and Viviane Reding (justice) briefed their colleagues on the Roma situation (see Focus), while Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva did the same about her recent visit to Pakistan.

The essence of the work programme for 2011 will be distilled in Commission head José Manuel Barroso’s annual ‘State of the Union’ speech, on 7 September at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The exercise is not new but has been given a new name (inspired by the American model) as part of the development of a ‘special partnership’ between the two EU institutions. It will now replace Barroso’s usual speech, in which he outlined his political priorities last time in February this year. n