Felicitaties voor goed verlopen Spaans voorzitterschap van de EU (en)

The European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy i, showed his appreciation at the end of Thursday's summit in Brussels, for the "excellent work of the Spanish Presidency-in-turn and its good co-operation with the permanent institutions.

The Spanish Presidency has been the first to act under the Treaty of Lisbon, which came into effect on January 1, and with which new institutions were created, including the permanent Presidency, which in these six months have been gradually beginning to function.

The President of the Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso i, alluded to this period of transition when he also gave thanks to the Spanish Presidency in the press conference after the Council in which he took part with Van Rompuy and the President of Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero i.

"I am grateful for the great successes achieved during the [Spanish] Presidency" which had to face "a very exceptional situation," Barroso said in reference to the unprecedented half-year in which the Presidency-in-turn and permanent shared tasks and functions.

Also in this Presidency, said Barroso, "substantive issues and new models have been dealt with, particularly in the area of economic governance of the EU.

Van Rompuy took advantage of the participation of the three leaders at the press conference to give Zapatero "congratulations on the measures" his government has taken to reduce the public deficit these reforms "are brave and will be effective," said the Council President.

Zapatero replied by thanking both Barroso and Van Rompuy, who he thanked for having "made work so easy" in the half-year that ends this month.

He also commended the achievements of the last Council of the Presidency, which, he said, "will turn the Union into a stronger entity economically."