"Spain will create precedents," said Diego López Garrido, Spanish Secretary of State for EU Affairs, speaking at a public event in Brussels organised by the European Policy Centre, a think-tank.
López Garrido, an experienced politician who represented his country at the convention in charge of drafting the now-defunct EU Constitution, said that his country's EU presidency will be "very particular," as it marks the transition "from the old Nice model to the new Lisbon Treaty era".
He also stressed that Spain had coordinated its work programme with Belgium and Hungary, the next two countries to assume the rotating EU presidency, in the format of the so-called 'trio of presidencies' (EurActiv 30/10/09). The three countries adopted a common programme for the next 18 months on 7 December, in the framework of the General Affairs Council, he said.
For the Spanish Presidency, meanwhile, López Garrido enumerated four main priorities.
Jobs and the economy
Primary among these is the economy, with recovering from the economic crisis and creating jobs on top of the agenda.
Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the euro zone. The average level of unemployment in the euro zone stood at 9.8% in October, while in Spain it was 19.3%, second only to Latvia, which stands at 20.9%.
Job creation is also the highest priority of the Party of European Socialists, which met for its annual congress in Prague yesterday. Spain has a socialist government, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).
López Garrido cited the adoption of the post-Lisbon 'EU 2020' strategy for the next ten years among his country's economic priorities (EurActiv 19/11/09). He said that the biggest challenge for the new strategy would be monitoring targets, as the Lisbon agenda for growth and jobs had set targets but omitted to monitor the countries' performance.
Also, he singled out the approval of a new means of supervising the international financial system as an important goal of the Spanish Presidency.
Lisbon Treaty implementation
The second priority, the Spanish secretary of state said, is the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, which he described as very similar to the defunct European Constitution.
"We have the paradox of having the tools without the policies," he said, referring to the fact that novelties introduced under the Lisbon Treaty - such as a so-called 'Citizens' Initiative' to trigger the legislative process by collecting one million signatures from a significant number of countries - exist only in theory. Spain is keen to set precedents in developing these tools, he explained.
Citizenship
The third priority, López Garrido said, is "citizenship".
"We think that the Europe of the 21st century should be based on tight complicity with its citizens," he said, criticising the fact that today's EU citizens see the Union as a far-away entity. He said his country harbours ambitions to "close the gap between Europe and the people" by pushing a more ambitious social agenda.
More specifically, he said the Spanish Presidency is planning to elaborate an action plan for implementing the 'Stockholm Programme' for freedom, security and justice in the EU. The Stockholm Programme is due to be adopted at the 10-11 December EU summit (EurActiv 12/10/09).
López Garrido said his country will be pushing for the adoption of a non-discrimination directive, to fight against what he said is the worst sin in our societies: violence against women. "We want to address gender violence not only from a national, but from a European perspective," he said.
Foreign affairs
The fourth priority, the Spanish high official explained, is foreign affairs, namely converting the EU into a genuine global player.
"Today we are not a global player. We have some expressions of foreign policy. We have approved some important missions, we have adopted some political common positions, but we do not have a real external policy in Europe," the Spanish official said.
With the Lisbon Treaty, however, the Union will have very important instruments for foreign policy – the president of the EU Council, who represents the Union abroad, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, who represents the Union as "a real foreign minister", and the European External Action Service (EEAS), he said.
For López Garrido, the EEAS could be the brightest, strongest diplomatic service in the world. The service is also the most important challenge presented by the Lisbon Treaty, he pointed out, saying that Spain wants its organisation and structure to be finalised before April.
"Before April, we will have the new European External Action Service. That's our objective," he said, adding that there is broad agreement at European level to achieve this.
However, this objective appears to contradict targets already announced. Speaking in the European Parliament last week, Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said she would begin work immediately to create the new service. Her objective, she said, is to "present a proposal" that would allow the Council to make a decision by the end of April (EurActiv 03/12/09).
'A very external presidency'
Answering questions from the audience, López Garrido said the Spanish Presidency will aim to strengthen the Council president and the High Representative, and that Spain will not overshadow the new Council president. It will be up to Herman van Rompuy to chair the record number of bilateral summits to be held in the next six months, he stressed.
"We are going to enter the Guinness Book of Records with nine or 10 summits," he said, citing the EU-US summit, the EU-Russia summit, the EU-Canada summit, the EU-Mediterranean summit, the first-ever EU-Morocco summit, and another gathering Latin American leaders.
Morocco is a major economic partner for Spain, which led the so-called 'Barcelona Process' until the 'Mediterranean Union' initiative introduced by the French EU Presidency moved the focus away from Spain's second-largest city (EurActiv 14/07/08).
"We will be a very external presidency," the Spanish politician said, adding that his country's ambition is to upgrade the existing legal base of agreements with a number of external partners.
From the outside, the EU and the USA are seen as a single entity referred to as "the West". However, except the North Atlantic Treaty, concluded under a completely different context, there are "no real agreements" on economic and political issues, he lamented.
Asked by EurActiv what could be expected from the reflection group on the future of Europe, chaired by former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González, López Garrido said an announcement will be made during the Spanish Presidency in the form of a short paper – no more than 20-30 pages.
"But I'm sure it will be very provocative," he added.
