Philippe Jottard
News.Az interviews Philippe Jottard, Ambassador of Belgium in Azerbaijan.
Why are the circumstances in which Belgium is assuming now the presidency of the European Union special?
It is the 12th time we take on this responsibility but this time will be very different. As one of the six founding members of the EU Belgium gained a lot of experience in the past decades as a member of the EU and occasionally as a president of its Council of ministers. The last time Belgium was the president of the Council of the EU in 2001 the European Council adopted in December the declaration of Laeken that became the starting point of the constitutional debate in the EU leading eventually to the Treaty of Lisbon. In those days too the EU had to react to the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11th calling for instant leadership by the presidency of the EU. An upcoming EU-presidency must be prepared for the unexpected as well.
Several factors determine the environment in which the Belgian presidency will have to operate. First of all, the EU is working now under the new Treaty of Lisbon. Together with many new competences and legal procedures to adopt our laws, two very important institutional innovations were introduced. First, the European Council was given a permanent president, the former Belgian Prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy; secondly, Lady Ashton was appointed High representative for foreign affairs and security policy and at the same time vice-president of the European Commission. She is presiding the Foreign Affairs Council. Both the European Council and the Foreign Affairs Council were presided by the rotating presidency before the Treaty of Lisbon came into force. To create a more efficient governance system, the treaty created these 2 permanent presidency functions. All 9 other council formations and the corresponding preparatory working groups remain under the system of the rotating presidency and it is precisely in this very extensive area that Belgium is taking over the presidency. Both institutional innovations surely create a particular transitional period in which the rotating presidency has to operate very carefully, creating right from the beginning the right conditions, working methods and setting the correct precedents.
On top of these institutional changes, the economic environment requires to pursue the response to the financial and economic crisis and carrying out substantive structural reforms of our societies.
Another novelty for our country was the preparation of a presidency in the context of the group presidency (called ‘trio presidency’), in our case consisting of Spain, Belgium and Hungary. It is meant to increase the continuity of action and programming between succeeding presidencies. A common 18 month program was adopted in December 2009.
The program for the Belgian presidency was established within that framework. Internal negotiations among government administrations were accompanied by a dialogue with the civil society and the national parliament.
Our presidency program was agreed by the federal government and by the regional and community governments of Belgium last June.
Which are the main themes of the Belgian presidency?
Our program is built around the five following themes:
1. the fight against the economic and financial crisis
2. climate and environment
3. justice and home affairs
4. the social dimension of the EU
5. the external dimension (enlargement, …)
and covering all this the further implementation of the treaty of Lisbon.
The first and probably most important theme of our Presidency is the current socio-economic situation in Europe and in particular our efforts to fight the economic crisis and to pursue the economic and financial transformation which should lead us towards economic recovery, sustainable growth and more jobs. We will have to continue our structural reforms which includes amongst other things pursuing the implementation of the new financial supervision architecture, strengthening the stability of the Eurozone, restoring budgetary discipline, paying particular attention to education and research as driving forces for innovation and reinforcing the single internal market.
A vital element in this context is the new European Strategy for Jobs and Growth (“EU 2020”) which succeeds the former Lisbon Strategy and was adopted at the European Council in June. Under Belgian Presidency, the council will start with the implementation of the strategy which should bring us closer to the target of a competitive and green knowledge economy by the year 2020.
Which concrete steps did the E.U take to respond to the financial crisis?
In March the European Council asked its President Herman Van Rompuy to set up a Task force which should report back to the Council by October 2010 on ways to avoid future crisis situations and to present measures aimed at strengthening the budgetary discipline and increasing the economic cooperation between member states to avoid macro-economic imbalances. Another recent and concrete step was taken in May: the ministers of Finance of the Eurozone decided to set up a stabilization mechanism worth 500 billion Euros and which consists of 440 billion Euros of loan guarantees by the member states and 60 billion Euros emergency funding by the European Commission. The International Monetary Fund provided an additional 250 million Euros. These amounts came on top of the rescue package for Greece.
Further concerted action towards more permanent crisis prevention mechanisms will go on. The EU and the Eurozone should also ensure a strong and prominent European role in the global governance structures like for instance the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the G20.
Could you describe the second priority focused on the climate and environmental policy?
In addition to promoting the aim of a low-carbon economy Europe is and should remain the driving force that encourages the international community to strive for ambitious and concrete results at the climate summit in Cancun later this year. We shall pay particular attention to the greening of our societies, in very different walks of life. If we really want to achieve the goal of a green economy in the EU itself, we have to link our climate ambitions to other areas such as European transport, energy and fiscal policies. Biodiversity will be another important issue during our Presidency.
What are the priorities in the area of Security, justice, asylum and home affairs?
We will start the implementation of the Stockholm Programme, the framework for EU police and customs cooperation, cooperation in terms of criminal and civil law and asylum, migration and visa policy for the period 2010–2014. The Stockholm Programme was adopted in December 2009 but now comes the beginning of the implementation of this ambitious program according to the Action Plan which the Commission has prepared. During its Presidency Belgium hopes to take forward issues like the common asylum procedure, the mutual recognition of judicial decisions and it will deal with themes like the fight against organized crime, illegal immigration and the trafficking in human beings.
Which progress does the Belgian presidency want to achieve in the social areas?
In addition to evaluating the present policies and thinking ahead to enhance the instruments for eradicating poverty Belgium wants to give a particular attention to the further development of a stronger social dimension in the “EU 2020” strategy and to the renewed Social agenda presented by the Commission in 2008 and in other sectors like pensions, public health or equality policy. We are all faced with the same challenges like for instance the ageing of the population or the fight against poverty.
The treaty of Lisbon has created the position of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security policy. How does the Belgian presidency envisage such an important innovation?
The EU has to remain one of the main actors for peace and security. To achieve this we have to speak with one single voice. The Lisbon Treaty makes this possible by creating that position of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Catherine Ashton presides over the Foreign Affairs Council and represents the EU abroad. The main instrument to enable her to really assume this task which is the European External Action Service will be fully established before the end of the year. Belgium has offered its support in the transitional phase. The priority setting in Common Foreign and Security Policy matters lies in the hands of Lady Ashton. In that she will be assisted by the member states among them Belgium.
The Belgian Foreign Minister, Steven Vanackere, however, will preside over the General Affairs Council, which deals among other things with the theme of EU-enlargement. Belgium will play the neutral role of an ‘honest broker’. This means that we maintain the European perspective for the candidate countries with the ultimate goal of EU membership once the conditions have been met. Each individual candidate country will only be able to make progress on the basis of its own merits. In the Foreign Affairs Council, international trade policy falls within the responsibility of the rotating presidency. The main objective of the EU is and should remain the conclusion of the Doha Round. Preparing the negotiating positions of the EU remains a responsibility of the rotating presidency.
How would you sum up Belgium ‘s ambitions during its EU presidency?
Belgium will act as an “honest broker” and do its utmost in this challenging time of transition, loyal to the letter and the spirit of the Treaty of Lisbon and in constructive cooperation with the institutions, in order to prepare the Union and its member states better for the tasks and challenges coming ahead of us.
Fatimah Sultanova
News.Az
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