Lopez Garrido omschrift Spaans voorzitterschap als "effectief en betrouwbaar" (en)

The Spanish Secretary of State for the EU, Diego Lopez Garrido. EFE

The Spanish Secretary of State for the EU, Diego Lopez Garrido, described the Spanish Presidency as "effective and reliable," after a half-year in which 100% of the objectives that depended on Spain were achieved.

López Garrido stressed that of the 148 initiatives that were to be addressed by the various Councils, 144 have been met while the rest have not, but not strictly for reasons to do with the Spanish Presidency, but rather because specific countries or situations had prevented them from being implemented. He gave as an example the case of the Union for the Mediterranean, the meeting of which was pushed back to a more suitable time, and the summit between the EU and the United States, which could not take place.

Over the past six months, the Spanish Presidency has had to deal with unexpected situations such as earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and the disruptions suffered by citizens and air traffic because of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, Lopez Garrido said.

In the economic field, he highlighted the deepening economic crisis and the "dramatic" situation in Greece that the Union responded to, saying that the Spanish Presidency leaves to the Belgians and Hungarians the legacy of its efforts to protect the Eurozone and to give the European Central Bank (ECB), which provided liquidity to the system, an important role.

"The Spanish Presidency was called upon to set the course for the EU and it has done this," he said. "We have created pathways to help us emerge from the economic crisis and to implement the Treaty of Lisbon, which was launched under the Spanish Presidency."

Areas of activity

During this half-year period, action has been taken to address regulation of the financial markets in order to create more transparency and publicise the "strength" of the banks, in order to lift the veil of obscurity. The need to coordinate economic policies, including budgetary policies, which constitute the "governance" of the EU, has also been stressed.

In his assessment, López Garrido highlighted the launch of the growth strategy for the future included in the Europe 2020 plan, which will be developed by the Belgian Presidency along with the "institutional architecture." The European Parliament arising from the Treaty of Lisbon should be "very powerful and very strong, and we have established a great relationship with the Parliament as well as with the Commission." To this end, the Belgian Presidency is being handed a "culture of well-oiled collaboration."

Other priorities of the Spanish Presidency that took shape in this half-year have been relationships with the public, "whose top requirement is the creation of quality jobs"; the primacy of human rights at all levels; and a series of concrete objectives in the area education, "to fight the phenomenon of school dropout"; efforts against exclusion and poverty, for gender equality and to combat gender violence.

Foreign Policy

López Garrido also spoke about the EU's relations with the world, saying "Europe must shape its foreign policy using defined strategies."

In this regard, he said that in relations with the United States "there have never been so many agreements", citing the Toledo Declaration on aviation security, the fight against terrorism, and the "open skies" and "Swift" agreements, the latter on transferring financial data to combat terrorism.

The Spanish Secretary of State stressed the political agreement to launch the European External Action Service, which is pending a European Parliament vote, and said that in the case of G-20, "Europe has maintained a common position, with results that will be seen at the next meeting in Seoul."