SIEPS’ annual conference 2007 was held on the theme The Purse of the European Union: Setting Priorities for the Future. The conference was arranged in the light of the EU budget review process that was launched in September 2007 and which is expected to be concluded in 2008-2009.

The French Presidency selected four priorities – immigration, defence, climate change and energy, agriculture – in line with the European agenda but also with national interests. The Union for the Mediterraneanwas later added to this list.

Slovenia, Germany and Portugal have agreed on a common 18-month programme of the first presiding "trio". As the last presiding country within the trio, Slovenia mainly took on the fairly "traditional role" of a small country holding the EU presidency - managing "a good presidency" for the EU.

The Swedish EU Presidency during the second half of 2009 will be constrained by a number of external factors such as the investiture of a new Commission, a newly elected European Parliament and it will probably be held under constitutional uncertainty. Nonetheless, the Swedish Government will want to make a mark on the priorities of the European Union during the Presidency.

The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty will have quite significant implications for European Union external trade policy. The most important change will be an increased role for the European Parliament (EP).

This publication aims to provide an overview of the Lisbon Treaty and its impact on criminal law. The author states that the Lisbon Treaty does not resolve all the constitutional issues in the field of European criminal law.

This paper focus on the TEU provisions on EMU with the aim of ascertaining the extent to which such rules have been amended and widened by the Lisbon Treaty. The analysis is a part of the research project The constitutional development of the European Union.

The author analyzes both the development of common EU asylum systems, and the various models that are discussed to share responsibility for the refugees who come to the EU. The conclusion is that the models discussed today are not likely to lead to an equitable distribution of responsibility and the author proposes a model where the prevention interventions for refugees is taken into account.

When changes to the Lisbon Treaty are discussed it is often mentioned of the more forceful formulation in the area of EU external actions and the new posts created within the EU's institutional structure that is expected to lead to greater coherence. An equally important but less noticed policy that has also been written into the Treaty is that of consistency between internal and external policies.

The General Court has since 1998 developed its practice on cross-border healthcare. But the development has taken place without guidance from EU regulators.