Quick blog post in the middle of the week

Things are moving quickly in Brussels this week with the next European Council focused on the economy coming up tomorrow and after-tomorrow. Yesterday, I spoke at at a BEPA seminar about the importance of the Community method and I met with Serbian President Tadic to discuss Serbia's possible candidate status. After the hesitations by the Romanian government I telephoned with Romanian President Basescu also yesterday to convince him that Serbia deserves this candidate status, a decision to be taken at the European Council. Still yesterday I met with the social partners - the trade unions and employers - to discuss the urgency of supporting fighting unemployment in some member states. There is also the Tripartite Social Summit tomorrow before the European Council to focus again on these questions as well as on the need for sustainable growth. Today we had the College of Commissioners meeting where we prepared the European Council and discussed the EU strategy for Rio 20+, for instance looking at ways for green growth. Afterwards a press conference and in the afternoon I met with Greek prime minister Papandreus. We discussed the measure to be taken by Greece, supported by the European Commission, to bring the country back on track. I had meetings with WTO chief Lamy and Lithuanian prime minister Kubilius. Now it's time to sleep, as tomorrow and Friday will be intensive days. Before the European Council starts, there is the EPP summit where the leaders from our political family meet to prepare the next two days, so a lot to do.