Earlier today, Commission President José Manuel Barroso presented the distribution of responsibilities in the new Commission. You will find the list here For my part, Mr. Barroso has proposed the Home Affairs portfolio, which is to include police cooperation, border control, security issues and asylum and migration.

I am proud to be entrusted with some of the toughest challenges facing the European Union. For me as a liberal, it will be an honour to lead the Union’s fight against cross-border crime and human trafficking, and to put in place a common asylum policy while also creating ways for legal migration to Europe. The EU should also be given a clearer role when Member States are struck by disasters. With the Lisbon Treaty in force, all these areas will have greater importance in the work of the Union.

The Stockholm Programme is a top priority for the Swedish Presidency and deals with issues that really affect citizens. As Commissioner, my task will be to put this into practice. I look forward to cooperating closely with Commissioner Viviane Reding, who is proposed as Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, in order to secure an effective fight against crime and an asylum and migration policy with individual rights at its core.

With Neelie Kroes (NL), Connie Hedegaard (DK) and John Dalli (MT) on Tuesday being nominated to the Commission, Mr. Barroso will now be able to start his distribution of portfolios. The Commission will then be up for the approval of the European Parliament, a process that probably will begin in Januar.

Looking at the 27 names, I am glad there are more women – nine in total – on the list than five years ago. With one of them being Catherine Ashton, who is up for the influential post as High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, it is pleasing that the EU is making progress in the area of gender equality.

You will find the full list here.

At the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The Swedish delegation room is crowded today, as no less than seven Ministers are present. Parliament is becoming increasingly important, in particular as the Lisbon Treaty will shortly enter into force. This makes the Presidency’s presence important, and it shows that we take Parliament’s work very seriously.

Today I have met Torbjörn Jagland, former Norwegian foreign minister and now Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. Among other things, we discussed the Human Rights situation in Russia and Belarus. Hopefully, Russia will shortly ratify the protocol to the Human Rights Convention simplifying the work of the European Court of Human Rights.

We also discussed the relations between the EU and the Council of Europe. In accordance with the Lisbon Treaty, the Union will adhere to the European Convention on Human Rights, which means greater protection for EU citizens. Referring to the increased EU focus on human rights issues, the Secretary-General made very clear that the Union must not be seen as a competitor to the Council of Europe. I totally share this view. The Council of Europe, with its wide membership and the various conventions binding Member States plays a key role, and will be complemented by the European Union’s Human Rights work.

The meeting of the European Parliament, starting today, dominates our work in the EU this week. Seven Swedish ministers will be in Strasbourg to participate in debates and answer questions on climate, enlargement, the Stockholm Programme, men’s violence against women and much more. For my own part, I will be representing the European Council in the Parliament’s debate.

Today, the ministers for environment also meet in Brussels at an extra Council meeting. The climate conference in Copenhagen is just a few weeks away, and Andreas Carlgren and his colleagues will conduct a final joint review of the positions and strategies.

And at the end of the week, the Education, Youth and Culture Council meet. Among the topics on the agenda are to make a contribution to the EU strategy for growth and jobs and to discuss the European year of Volunteering 2011.

Yesterday the heads of state and government agreed on the appointments of the first President of the European Council and the High Representative. Herman Van Rompuy has succeeded in forming and unite a government in Belgium. This is an experience that will be of much use at European Council negotiations. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to work with Catherine Ashton in the Commission. Among other things she will be responsible for the forming of EU:s external action service. I’m confident that she will succeed in this. It is necessary with a better gender balance on the very top posts in the Union. Yesterdays dinner was one important step in that direction.

Today, the Swedish government has decided to nominate me to the next European Commission. Europe has to deal with a range of decisive issues. For example we have to handle climate change, increased cross-border crime, and make further enlargement possible. I am proud and honoured for the opportunity to contribute to this important task as Commissioner. Being a liberal, I feel strongly about European integration. The European Union is the most important tool we have to tackle our common challenges.

Today, I have led the discussions in the General Affairs Council. Apart from preparations for the European Council in December, we had two good policy discussions. One about the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, the other one on the future of the Lisbon Strategy.

The Sustainable Development Strategy could be described as a long term vision for the EU, focusing on areas such as climate change, demography and education. The discussion today provided important guidance for the implementation of the strategy, but also resulted in some interesting ideas on the issue of complementing GDP with other parameters. In general terms, high economic growth is preferable, but GDP is a crude measure if we are to describe important development in many areas. As Albert Einstein has said: “ Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count, and everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted”.

The discussion on the Strategy for Growth and Jobs was based on a working paper from the Commission. The economic crisis has put member states’ budget under heavy pressure. Therefore it is important to make the right priorities, with the aim that Europe should lead, compete and prosper as a greener, knowledge-based economy. To achieve this, we need structural reform, and the discussions today gave good input in which key priorities we should identify and how we can improve the organisation and working methods to reinforce local and regional ownership and effectiveness in the new strategy.

What was not discussed was the EU budget. Our intention was to hold a lunch discussion on how we could modernize the budget, but the Commission has delayed its discussion paper proposal that was due to come this month. According to a Council decision in 2005, the review was to be done during 2008 and 2009, but the Commission will now not even put forward a proposal until spring 2010. This is remarkable and deplorable as we really need to discuss how we are to tackle – and finance – the future challenges ahead. Now that we will have a new Treaty in a few weeks, we also need a new modern budget.

Today, it’s exactly fifteen years since Swedes voted in favour of Sweden joining the European Union. Those of us who campaigned for a yes vote finally succeeded in convincing a majority of the population to put the ’yes’ ballot in the box. It’s hard to forget the joy of victory in the evening of 13 November 1994, when the final results appeared on the TV screen.

The referendum followed on a long and quite aggressive campaign, paved by exaggerated rumours from the no side, claiming how Sweden would be hit by EU membership. Hormon-treated beef was to invade supermarkets, the right to walk freely in our forests would be banned, Germans were to buy up each and every summer house in the country and democracy would come to an end. Did this actually happen?

Of course not. It’s true, however, that EU membership has brought substantial and positive changes to the Swedish society. Today, we share a Common Foreign and Security Policy with 26 other Member States, we are part of a single market with nearly half a billion consumers. We have tough, common regulations on environment and a common policy on asylum and migration will soon be in place. After fifteen years of membership, the European Union has become an integral part of Swedish democracy.

The government is committed to standing up for Europe back home, by showing the added value of EU membership, tell citizens what the government does in Brussels and engage in a dialogue on EU related issues.

The result? Well, since a number of years, a majority of Swedes support membership in the EU and consider the European Union as a good thing. This support is constantly growing.

Much have been said about 1989 and the wind of democracy through Central and Eastern Europe, but few have said it with such authority as Václav Havel did in the European Parliament a few minutes ago. As one of the key persons in this shift to freedom, democracy and human rights, Havel held a powerful speech in a crowded Parliament on the fall of the iron curtain and the future of Europe.

I am representing the Council at the session today in the European Parliament and will soon be answering questions on various topics, but Havel and others at this ceremony on the 20th Anniversary of Democratic Change here in the Parliament have truly reminded us about the greater picture.

With the conference in Copenhagen just a month away, a good deal of the efforts of the Swedish Presidency lie on preparing the climate issue. Last week, Prime Minister Reinfeldt represented the Swedish Presidency at the EU-USA and EU-India summit. That the US must be ready to take its responsibility if we are to reach a deal on the climate is a plain fact, but it is also important that the fight against global warming includes developing countries. It is therefore pleasing that the EU-India summit resulted in an agreement on support of the two degree target, even though this is a domestically sensitive issue in India.

Climate negotiations have also been going on in Barcelona, in a last negotiation meeting in front of Copenhagen. Progress was made on technical issues and there were good discussions, leading to a greater level of understanding. But the politically sensitive issues were not solved. If we are to reach a deal in Copenhagen, a greater will to negotiate is needed. The two core issues are the level of the emission reductions and the financing of the necessery measures, and we need to move forward in these areas. The EU has committed itself to reduce its emissions with 30 % if other countries make comparable commitments. Now, the US and other industrialized countries must step up their ambitions to reduce emissions, and the more advanced developing countries must make adequate commitments according to their respectively capabilities and responsibilities.

Regarding financing, the EU has expressed its support for the European Commissions estimate that costs in developing countries could amount to 100 billion euro annually by 2020. This issue was also raised at the meeting of the G20 finance ministers, but regrettably, they were unable to make the needed progress. It is now up to the US and other industrialized countries to also present a credible financing of the needs of the developing countries.

The Swedish Presidency continues with its work, and I am glad that the EU acts as the well-needed leader. The basic success story of the EU is that cooperation works. This is a lesson that now must be learnt by the rest of the world, too.