The latest news http://www.eurostep.org/wcm 2010-03-13T07:52:19+01:00 http://www.eurostep.org/wcm http://www.eurostep.org/wcm/images/M_images/mambo_rss.png text/html http://www.eurostep.org/wcm Filip De Keukeleere http://www.eurostep.org/wcm/content/view/930/158/ The turf war between the European Commission and the Member States over the new European External Action Service (EEAS) has stepped up over the past week, following the leaking of a draft paper on the EEAS and a vision paper by High Representative Catherine Ashton which proposes giving a dominant role to the Council of Ministers (representing Member States) in the new diplomatic service. text/html http://www.eurostep.org/wcm Filip De Keukeleere http://www.eurostep.org/wcm/content/view/929/158/ On Wednesday 3 March, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso launched the EU's new ten-year economic strategy, including targets on higher employment, greener growth and greater research spending to be met across the 27-country bloc. The 2020 strategy has been met with widespread cynicism, with many commentators pessimistic of the chance that it will be translated into significant concrete action. The EU's last Lisbon strategy was widely perceived as containing excessive targets and weak implementation mechanisms. text/html http://www.eurostep.org/wcm Filip De Keukeleere http://www.eurostep.org/wcm/content/view/928/158/ The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) began its annual 12-day conference in New York on Monday 1 March. Speakers are debating the issues set by the Beijing Platform for Action adopted in 1995, which range from the political and economic under-representation of women, to sexual violence, to maternal mortality. text/html http://www.eurostep.org/wcm Filip De Keukeleere http://www.eurostep.org/wcm/content/view/927/158/ On 2-4 March, the two European development NGOs CIDSE and Caritas jointly hosted their fifth North-South forum, attended by representatives of global civil society and of the European Commission. The title of the meeting was European Commission cooperation with civil society cooperation between Northern and Southern Civil Society Organisations — exploring roles, space and added value .