Piotr Maciej Kaczynski is Research Fellow at the Center of European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. In this interview, he discusses the European Union’s plans for its own diplomatic service, known as the European External Action Service, or EEAS.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have drawn up a plan for the EEAS after the Lisbon Treaty on the future of the union entered into force last December. That plan, seen widely as a compromise between member states, has been approved by the EU member states and is set to be approved by the Council. Enacting this plan, which seeks to give the EU a more solid footing in the global arena, will be the challenge for Ashton’s team during the second half of 2010.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday dismissed the potential impact of the more than 75.000 classified military documents that have been revealed by Wikileaks, saying that “they should not be damaging the international efforts.”

Arriving at a EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels, Hague said he hoped that the “Wikileaks” revelations would not poison the atmosphere and damage the international efforts in building up the Afghan state.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said it was too early to assess the impact of the revelations.

Go to http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/ for more about the documents.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday agreed to impose new economic sanctions on Iran, going well beyond the measures approved by a UN resolution last month. The ministers, meeting in Brussels, agreed to ban all new investment by European companies in the Iranian oil and gas sectors. This is part of what some diplomats describe as the most wide-ranging sanctions the EU has ever agreed against any country.

The measures include an asset freeze on some 40 Iranian companies believed to be linked to the country’s nuclear programme. This is in addition to the 40 companies singled out in last month’s UN resolution.

The sanctions also clamp down on financial transactions between the EU and Iran. From today onwards, any transaction worth more than €40,000 with Iran will first need approval from the national treasury of the EU country involved, the Financial Times reported. In the past, US and British diplomats have privately lamented the EU’s lack of willingness to impose more sanctions on Iran, noting the reluctance of Germany, France and Italy, Tehran’s three biggest trading partners in Europe.

Wanted: Fresh ideas for a smart, clean and efficient electric grid. That call was placed in Munich on 15 July 2010 at the European launch of the GE Ecomagination challenge. This challenge makes available $200 million (160 million euro) for innovative ideas in digital energy.

Watch this video playlist for individual interviews with:
- Tore Land, Director Ecomagination EMEA, GE;
- Rich Hudson, CEO of Science Business;
- Gina Domanig, Managing Partner, Emerald Technology Ventures;
- Antoine Harary, Director, Strategy One;
- Ramon Wyss, Professor, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm;
- and Wiktor Raldow, Head of Unit, DG Research, European Commission.

For more information about the Ecomagination challenge, visit:
http://innovatingthefuture.blogactiv.eu.

EurActiv organized a Stakeholder Workshop in Brussels on ‘Healthcare; the demographic crisis’. Among the speakers were Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, member of the cabinet of EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes; Mario Romao, digital health policy manager for Europe at Intel’s global public policy team; Bulgarian MEP Parvanova; and Pascal Garel, CEO of HOPE, the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation.

Vincent Van Quickenborne is Belgium’s Minister for Economy and Reform. He talks about Belgium’s EU presidency ambitions to reach a breakthrough on a single European patent by December 2010. Linguistic issues are the main obstacle, he says in this interview conducted 14 July at a chemical industry conference in Antwerp.

This video playlist brings together all the clips produced at the European launch of the GE ecomagination Challenge in Munich on 15 July 2010.

‘Putting Europe Back on Track’ is the theme of the 2010 European Business Summit in Brussels, organized by the federation of Belgian enterprises FEB/VOB and BUSINESSEUROPE.

This highlights compilation made by EUX.TV completes our video coverage of EBS2010.

Also see the dedicated blog on Blogactiv: http://backontrack.blogactiv.eu

The 2010 European Business Summit kicked off on Wednesday in Brussels under the theme “Putting Europe back on track”. A new report that took the views of more than 250 CEOs of European companies, surveyed by Accenture and the Insead business school, called on European politicians to do more to encourage innovation and build a more sustainable and competitive Europe.

This first video highlight clip includes short soundbites from Rudi Thomaes, Chief Executive Office of the Federation of Belgian Enterprises VEB/FOB; Mark Spelmann, member of the senior executive council of INSEAD; Philippe de Buck, Director General of BUSINESSEUROPE; CNBC anchor and moderator Guy Johnsson; and Frank Brown, Dean of the Insead business school.