Prioriteiten Hongaars voorzitterschap op 14 januari te bespreken door Raad van Ministers (en)

On 14 January Gödöllo will host a meeting of the Ministers and State Secretaries for EU Affairs of the 27 EU Member States. The first item on the agenda will be the traditional presentation of the Presidency’s programme. Further items will concern the changing role of the General Affairs Council and the preparation of the February Energy Summit.

The first informal meeting of the Hungarian Presidency will be held on 13-14 January. As has been the case by tradition, the hosts have invited the Ministers and State Secretaries for EU Affairs of the Member States.

The program was disclosed in early January. Its first part is a brief summary of the Presidency’s four priorities and the proposed principles underlying the Hungarian Presidency’s tasks. The operative programme specifies all steps to be taken in each matter with a breakdown to specialty areas.

Enlargement as a palpable priority

The Hungarian Presidency will be represented at the meeting by Eniko Gyori, Hungarian Minister of State for EU Affairs. At the background briefing, Gyori said that the meeting would be extraordinary in that the representatives of EU candidate countries have also been invited for the first day. The Hungarian Presidency broke away from traditions to stress its goal that the EU should remain open to European countries that are ready and able to implement internal reforms for the consolidation of European values and to meet all accession requirements.

Hungary regards the furthering of the enlargement process as an important task. The representatives of Croatia, Iceland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey will arrive in Budapest to become familiar with all details in the Hungarian Presidency’s programme that relate to enlargement.

The second day will be held only with participation of the 27, without representatives from the candidate countries. The 14 January session will revolve around three topics:

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  the Hungarian Presidency’s key tasks, especially the implementation of the European Semester;
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  preparation for the European Council’s 4 February 2011 session on Energy and Innovation;
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  the “lisbonisation” of the General Affairs Council, i.e. the identification of its place and role in the new institutional structure.

Preparation for energy summit launched

Ministers and State Secretaries for EU Affairsarepreparing the Hungarian Presidency’s first summit, which will be one of its key events. At the European Council’s session planned for 4 February, member state heads of state and government wish to give an impetus to the strategic issues of energy policy, but innovation will also be a key topic.

The summit is being prepared in close cooperation with Herman Van Rompuy, Permanent President of the European Council. This will be the first “thematic” summit in the EU’s history, i.e. the first meeting for heads of state and government to discuss a previously determined topic.

Preparation for the summit is taking place simultaneously in various forums. The Permanent Representation in Brussels is in continuous consultation with other EU institutions but the first steps were taken by Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, and José Manuel Barroso, President of the Commission, at the joint session of the Hungarian Government and the European Commission on 7 January.

Barroso then explained that the Commission had already presented its proposal for the “flagship initiative” on innovation and will soon table its document on energy efficiency. The parties agreed that Energy 2020, the midterm energy strategy for the period between 2011 and 2020, and the draft programme for the Integrated European Energy Network will take the place of pride at the summit.

Lisbon changes take effect as tension between institutions eases

The last item on the agenda of Ministers for EU Affairs may be less exciting for the uninitiated but it constitutes a matter that is vital to the Council’s workings. The General Affairs Council became an independent formation under the Lisbon Treaty. According to the Treaty, its job is to “ensure consistency in the work of the different Council configurations. It shall prepare and ensure the follow-up to meetings of the European Council, in liaison with the President of the European Council and the Commission.”

But coordination requires the clarification of several problems. According to Eniko Gyori, the Hungarian Presidency will strive to reduce “the tension between institutions” and thereby create the proper conditions for the EU’s individual policies. As a former member of the European Parliament, the Minister of State for EU Affairs explicitly confirmed the Hungarian Presidency’s commitment to maintaining close relations with the EP. Gyori said the Presidency is operating in a “Parliament-friendly” mode so that the Parliament can adopt regulations that determine the EU’s future as soon as possible, including the six bills on the reform of the economic policy coordination system.

Hungary already set an example of cooperation within the Spanish-Belgian-Hungarian trio. The Secretaries of State for EU Affairs of the three countries have held regular meetings since January 2010 to ensure a smooth transition between presidencies. The meeting which evaluated joint work was also held in Hungary. The three State Secretaries for EU Affairs, Diego López Garrido, Olivier Chastel and Eniko Gyori, respectively, hold a joint press conference on the outcome of the meeting.