A new role under Lisbon
Belgium way of dealing with life under the treaty was a success.
The European Union is still experimenting with answers to the ambiguities left by the Lisbon treaty, which came into effect on 1 December 2009. Belgium has just provided one possible answer to the question: what is the role of the country that for six months holds the presidency of the Council of Ministers?
The Lisbon treaty left unclear how the rotating presidency should interact with two of Lisbon’s innovations: a permanent president of the European Council and a foreign policy chief who is also a member of the European Commission.
Belgium’s approach was clearly different from that of Spain, which held the presidency in the first half of 2010.
Steven Vanackere, Belgium’s foreign minister, speaking just before the end of the presidency on 20 December, said the presidency had aimed to ensure that the “four wheels” of the EU institutions “moved at the same speed and in the right direction”. The four wheels that he identified were the European Council, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the EU’s foreign policy chief. The rotating presidency “should not be a fifth wheel”, he said.
What is striking about this approach is that it puts the Council of Ministers, the meetings of the various sectoral ministers – whether finance, environment, fisheries or transport – much more clearly at the behest of the European Council, the national government leaders, whose meetings are now prepared and chaired by the European Council’s permanent president, currently Herman Van Rompuy.
Better preparation
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Council meetings of foreign ministers are nowadays chaired by Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief. So Vanackere’s main role as foreign minister of the country holding the rotating presidency was to chair meetings of the General Affairs Council (GAC), to which member states usually send either their foreign minister or European affairs minister. He said that he had sought during the presidency to use the GACs to ensure better preparation of European Council meetings. Van Rompuy met ministers attending the GAC in the week leading up to the European Council over lunch and dinner and gathered initial reactions to proposals that were to be discussed later by national leaders.
Vanackere added that he was also using the GACs for a stocktaking following European Councils, to ensure that what had been agreed at EU leaders’ level was implemented.
Belgium’s case is somewhat special. The presidency was being run by a caretaker government that was readier to take a backseat than the Spanish government had been. Co-operation with the European Council president was easier given that Van Rompuy is a former Belgian prime minister (and of the same party as the current prime minister and foreign minister). But there are elements of its approach that may be imitated by others. Hungary, which took over the presidency on 1 January, intends to continue working in the way demonstrated by the Belgians.
János Martonyi, Hungary’s foreign minister, said on 20 December that his country planned to “listen, serve [and] support the European agenda” and complete the institutional transition following the Lisbon treaty’s coming into force.
Poland, which takes over the presidency from Hungary on 1 July, wants to play a more assertive role in setting the EU’s political priorities. Belgium has provided one answer to the Lisbon treaty’s ambiguities, but it is not the only one possible.