Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose country will assume the rotating EU presidency from 1 January, expressed hope that on that day "the Lisbon Europe will be born," with the Spanish Presidency being the first to take place under the new treaty. He explained that the presidencies' logo, which comprises of the interlinked letters 'EU' repeated three times, each with the colours of the respective countries' flag, was a common one, symbolising work carried out together over the 18-month period.
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy said the three countries, which belong to three different regions of Europe and became part of the Union during different historic periods - Belgium as a founder country, Spain after the fall of the Franco dictatorship and Hungary after the fall of the Berlin Wall - had in common the capacity to ensure solid economic growth thanks to EU membership. He also mentioned the anecdotal fact that the three countries had in fact been part of the same empire, ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs, in the 17th century.
Their Hungarian colleague, Gordon Bajnaj, said that the trio's "noble task" was to set a precedent for how Europe should function under the Lisbon Treaty, with the Spanish Presidency facing the most challenging task. The logo symbolises the strong coordination between the three countries which began a year ago, he said. Bajnaj added that he expected that exit strategies from the crisis to be decided during the trio's term at the EU helm.
Zapatero presented the designer of the logo, 23-year-old Belgian student Antoine Durieux, with an awared. His work was selected from a pool of 300 projects by online voting, which saw 10,000 people vote over 17 days.
