|  Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian Foreign Ministry state secretaries in charge of European affairs – Diego Lopez Garrido, Olivier Chastel and Gábor Iván – held talks in Madrid on June 22 on preparations for their EU “trio” presidency between January 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. The aim of the meeting was political harmonization of the trio presidency’s programme. The state secretaries reviewed and approved policy tasks and goals, which have been the subject of expert level consultations between the three Member States over the past year. In this process, the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian ministries have been active, serving the presidency preparations. Having elaborated priorities and put them into a working framework, the presidency preparations have entered into an operative stage. The draft of the operative programme approved in Madrid will now be put forward for consultation among EU institutions. The three Member States first intend to hold detailed discussions with the European Commission and the Council General Secretariat, followed by talks aiming to win political support for the presidency’s programme from the newly elected European Parliament. The draft of the operative programme addresses all priorities on the EU’s policy agenda. These include the Union’s competitiveness, strengthening social Europe, managing the economic and financial crisis, sustainable use of natural resources, shaping common energy policy, combating climate change, the security of EU citizens, European Neighbourhood Policy, enlargement and the financial perspectives with particular respect to cohesion, common agricultural policy and the new global challenges facing the Union.  In addition to the presidency programme, the state secretaries approved the trio’s communications strategy. For the first time in European Union history, the three countries will use a joint logo with a national element varying every six months. The technical preparations for the logo selected in Budapest in February this year have ended, and it is expected to be made public before the start of the trio presidency at the end of 2009. Another novelty is that the three countries will jointly operate a welcoming website during the 18 months of the presidency.
(June 22, 2009) |