General report on EU's activities in 2006 published

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Keeping to the annual deadline laid down by the Treaties, the Commission has presented its General Report on the Activities of the European Union, recording developments in the Union in 2006, to the Members of the European Parliament, meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg.

Underlining the importance of an occasion anchored in the institutions' traditions, the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said: "In publishing the General Report, the Commission is, of course, responding to the need for transparency, but above all it feels that it is helping to create the results-based Europe we are striving for. At the same time it adds one more brick to the edifice of the Union's collective memory, a memory that will come to the fore this year as the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome approaches."

This year the report again follows the concise approach adopted in 2005. In some 250 pages, it aims to provide a broad overview of the activities of all the Union's institutions and bodies in 2006.

Developments in the various fields are presented under the headings of the four strategic objectives that the Commission spelled out as the bedrock of its work programme when it took office: prosperity, solidarity, security and strengthening the Union's role on as a global player. Two further chapters deal with developments in the Union's institutions and bodies and with the budget and financial activities. Briefly placing the main developments in the context of how the various issues have evolved over the past few years, the General Report highlights the major events and the key trends marking the Union's progress in 2006 - a notable instance being implementation of the Lisbon strategy that was relaunched in 2005.

Preceding the sector-by-sector thematic presentation, another chapter is devoted to the general policy framework underlying the Community's activities, which outlines the progress made in 2006 in such fundamental areas as better regulation and the establishment of the new financial framework for 2007-13. It also focuses on the importance of the "citizens' agenda" as an instrument for reviving European momentum after the slowdown of progress with the draft Constitutional Treaty in 2005.

Published in twenty-two official languages (the Bulgarian and Romanian editions are due to appear in a few weeks), the General Report is available from the sales offices for European Community publications. It can also be consulted via the internet on the EU's Europa website : http://europa.eu/generalreport/en/welcome.htm

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