Spain vows to take backstage role as EU president

Background

The EU's Lisbon Treaty, eight years in the making, came into force across the bloc's 27 member states today. 

EU leaders believe the Lisbon Treaty will rejuvenate the decision-making apparatus of the EU institutions, making the functioning of the 27-member Union more efficient and democratic. 

The new treaty introduces the new 'top jobs' of permanent president of the EU Council to chair EU summit meetings for a two-and-a-half year term, and a High Representative for Foreign Affairs, who is also a vice-president of the European Commission. 

At a summit on 20 November, EU heads of state and government chose Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as EU president and Briton Catherine Ashton as high representative (EurActiv 20/11/09). 

Baroness Ashton and Van Rompuy took up their duties on 1 December 2009 upon the Lisbon Treaty's entry into force. 

However, Ashton is yet to be formally approved in her Commission post by the European Parliament, and Van Rompuy is not expected to exercise his duties in a formal capacity until 1 January 2010. 

More on this topic

Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Spanish foreign minister, said Spain will only play a supporting role to the EU's new leaders.

Meeting the Brussels press for the first time in his new EU capacity on 18 December, Moratinos made it clear that with the Lisbon Treaty now in force, Spain will take a step back on the EU scene and instead provide full support to Europe's new leaders and institutions.

"I would like to state it very clearly: the engagement of the prime minister of Spain and of the entire Spanish government is that we have new European representatives who will lead, give momentum and steer [the Union] through the first semester of 2010," said Moratinos, speaking in Spanish.

"Spain will not abandon its responsibility […] but we will do it with modesty, with discretion, through our work and our support. This is what we have decided and what we have agreed with the permanent president [and] with the High Representative, and I can say that there will be no competition, there will be complementarity, there will be support to these new institutions and personalities," he stated.

Moratinos presented his country's priorities, which largely repeated a recent presentation by Spain's Secretary of State for EU Affairs Diego López Garrido (EurActiv 09/12/09).

Facilitating Lisbon Treaty innovations

The Spanish minister said that permanent Council President Herman van Rompuy will chair EU summits and speak to the press, adding that it would be left to him to decide whether to invite Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero should he consider it necessary.

Speaking about his own role, Moratinos made it clear that Catherine Ashton will chair meetings of EU foreign affairs ministers. Only the informal Gymnich ministerial meeting in Cordoba, due on 5-6 March, will be co-chaired, he said.

As part of its ambition to facilitate the full implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, Moratinos said Spain will do its utmost to quickly integrate an additional 18 MEPs into the European Parliament. The current Parliament was constituted with 736 MEPs, but the Lisbon Treaty foresees that there should be 751 MEPs (EurActiv 06/11/09).

He also said Spain will work with the Commission to adopt a regulation on the so-called 'citizen's initiative' created by the Lisbon Treaty, which allows voters to trigger a process for adopting new EU laws based on a million signatures (EurActiv 11/11/09).

'2020 strategy' may change name

As for the future of the EU's flagship Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs, which expires in 2010, Moratinos said the new strategy had not yet been given a definitive name.

In its consultation for a new post-2010 strategy, the European Commission had suggested naming the new policy agenda 'EU 2020', in reference to the new target date for achieving the EU's objectives of growth, jobs and environmental protection (EurActiv 19/11/09). But it remained unclear whether Spain was considering naming the new strategy after the city of Valencia, where the new policy is due to be adopted on 25-26 March.

Moratinos caused some controversy, saying that the major shortcoming of the Lisbon Strategy was the lack of a binding mechanism to monitor the performance of member countries on issues as diverse as employment or innovation or social inclusion. Asked to elaborate, he apparently stepped back, saying Europe was only "at the beginning" of this process. "My English is not so perfect. When I say 'binding', it can mean very binding, less binding […] I can say it in Spanish better," he cautioned.

Enlargement agenda 

On the EU's enlargement to new countries, Moratinos made it clear that Spain was standing behind Croatia's accession bid, saying it would seek to close the negotiation process in the first half of 2010. He also said efforts would be made to solve Macedonia's 'name dispute' with Greece, allowing for accession negotiations to start.

He also said he favoured Turkey making progress with its negotiations, which are currently blocked over Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to Cypriot vessels and planes. However, he said he was optimistic that ongoing talks on the reunification of the divided island would succeed, and said his country had excellent relations with both Nicosia and Ankara.

On Turkey, he added that Spain had initiated together with Turkey an 'Alliance of Civilisations' initiative, and was going to move the agenda further in the coming months.

The Spanish minister also indicated that Serbia would present its accession application very soon, and that his country is not opposed to the move, despite the fact that the present legal basis of EU-Serbia relations, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), is not yet in force due to opposition from the Netherlands (EurActiv 08/12/09). 

Links