Spain vowed to take a backstage role during its stint as holder of the six-month rotating EU Presidency, saying the frontmen will be Herman Van Rompuy, the EU's first permanent President, and Catherine Ashton, the new High Representative for foreign affairs. Miguel Angel Moratinos, 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 will 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 will steer [the Union] through the first semester of 2010," said Moratinos, who was 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, 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.
Miguel Angel Moratinos, 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 will 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 will steer [the Union] through the first semester of 2010," said Moratinos, who was 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, 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.
EU's incoming presidency intends to put economic reform at heart of its six-month programme. The incoming Spanish presidency of the EU said today that it will seek binding commitments from member states that they will reform their economies. It wants the binding commitments to form part of a ten-year strategy that governments are expected to agree upon next year whose aim will be to improve the EU's growth and competitiveness."Sooner or later we are going to have to face the need for enhanced and better [economic] co-operation," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos said. The strategy, labelled `eu2020' by the European Commission, will replace the EU's Lisbon reform agenda, which expires next year.
The incoming Spanish presidency of the EU said today that it will seek binding commitments from member states that they will reform their economies.
It wants the binding commitments to form part of a ten-year strategy that governments are expected to agree upon next year whose aim will be to improve the EU's growth and competitiveness.
"Sooner or later we are going to have to face the need for enhanced and better [economic] co-operation," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos said.
The strategy, labelled `eu2020' by the European Commission, will replace the EU's Lisbon reform agenda, which expires next year.
However there are four issues that are basically economic but which have political aspects and these four will be the issues on which the European triumvirate of Barroso, Van Rompuy and Ashton will be judged.The first major issue is the institutional relations with Russia, in particular concerning Russian energy sources and a certain degree of EU "energy security".The second major issue which also concerns Russia is the policies toward the states of former Yugoslavia and Albania on the one side and the states of the former USSR on the other, in particular Moldova, closely linked to EU member Romania (2), Georgia, and Ukraine. Which of these states will become members of the EU, and if so, when? What will be the relations with the states that do not become members of the EU? Are there limits to EU membership, and what, if any, is the relationship between EU and NATO membership?The third major issue is of a similar nature of membership or relations but needs to be looked at separately. This issue is the relations with Turkey. Although membership in the EU for Turkey was at the basis of EU-Turkish talks and on-and-off negotiations, there are those among the Turkish governing elite who believe that the EU is permanently hostile to Turkish membership. They believe that the alternative to EU membership lies in creating Turkish influence in the Middle East. This is the policy of what I call the "neo-Ottomans" and there are signs of this policy with improved relations with Syria, with Armenia, with the Kurds, and greater distance from Israel. If Turkey does not join the EU, what will be the institutional relations between Turkey and the EU?The fourth major challenge remains the financial-economic recession, the high unemployment in most of the EU countries, the migration of people within the EU, and the desire of people from outside the EU to come to Europe for economic and political reasons. This fourth challenge is the daily work of the European Commission, but they have broad socio-political aspects that require top-level attention.The tasks of the European triumvirate are crucial. They do not require high profile personalities, but they do require more dynamic leadership than has been seen in the past.
However there are four issues that are basically economic but which have political aspects and these four will be the issues on which the European triumvirate of Barroso, Van Rompuy and Ashton will be judged.
The first major issue is the institutional relations with Russia, in particular concerning Russian energy sources and a certain degree of EU "energy security".
The second major issue which also concerns Russia is the policies toward the states of former Yugoslavia and Albania on the one side and the states of the former USSR on the other, in particular Moldova, closely linked to EU member Romania (2), Georgia, and Ukraine. Which of these states will become members of the EU, and if so, when? What will be the relations with the states that do not become members of the EU? Are there limits to EU membership, and what, if any, is the relationship between EU and NATO membership?
The third major issue is of a similar nature of membership or relations but needs to be looked at separately. This issue is the relations with Turkey. Although membership in the EU for Turkey was at the basis of EU-Turkish talks and on-and-off negotiations, there are those among the Turkish governing elite who believe that the EU is permanently hostile to Turkish membership. They believe that the alternative to EU membership lies in creating Turkish influence in the Middle East. This is the policy of what I call the "neo-Ottomans" and there are signs of this policy with improved relations with Syria, with Armenia, with the Kurds, and greater distance from Israel. If Turkey does not join the EU, what will be the institutional relations between Turkey and the EU?
The fourth major challenge remains the financial-economic recession, the high unemployment in most of the EU countries, the migration of people within the EU, and the desire of people from outside the EU to come to Europe for economic and political reasons. This fourth challenge is the daily work of the European Commission, but they have broad socio-political aspects that require top-level attention.
The tasks of the European triumvirate are crucial. They do not require high profile personalities, but they do require more dynamic leadership than has been seen in the past.
