151 days to go until the EU presidency: Estonia to send two experts to Brussels to deal with Brexit related issues

Today, the Presidency Committee approved a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to second two experts to Brussels to deal with the issues relating to the UK’s exit from the European Union.

One of the experts will join the team of the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier i, who is in charge of the negotiations with the United Kingdom in accordance with the guidelines set out by the heads of state and government of the member states. EU institutions have agreed that each Member State holding the presidency will second an expert to Barnier’s team to coordinate Brexit negotiations. The expert supports the Chief Negotiator’s efforts and acts as a liaison between the Chief Negotiator and the EU presidency. The second expert seconded to the EU Council’s Brexit working group will start working at the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU in February. Both experts will stay in Brussels until the end of Estonia’s EU presidency.

Hybrid threats and data protection

The Presidency Committee also decided to create an additional post at the Government Office, because a new working group; cyber threats, is being set up by the EU Council. One of the priorities for Estonia as the country holding the EU presidency is to ensure a secure and protected Europe, including the European information space. In order to tackle the current global threats, Europe needs to step up cooperation and information exchange between countries. As the first meeting of the cyber threats working group is scheduled to take place during Malta’s presidency, the Estonian expert representative will also start working in February.

In addition, all data collected from the delegates attending presidency events in Estonia must be secured and protected. For this purpose, data protection guidelines were prepared and presented today to the Presidency Committee.

Estonia-Bulgaria-Austria meeting

Representatives from the EU Secretariat of the Government Office met today in Vienna with their counterparts from Austria and Bulgaria, the Member States with whom Estonia forms the Presidency Trio. The Presidency Committee was provided with an overview of the meeting and the progress made in preparing the trio programme.

At the end of last year, the three Member States submitted their first proposals of important topics to the Council Secretariat. Estonia’s proposals are based on the presidency priorities approved recently by the Government. Yesterday’s meeting discussed and reviewed all proposals and suggestions. What stood out among the proposals and suggestions was that the EU should be brought closer to its citizens and a greater focus should be placed on security as well as on connection and infrastructure projects. A general consensus emerged from the discussion that the programme should include a reference to gender equality.

Presidency mementos

Similarly to previous meetings, the topic of mementos generated a lively discussion. Traditionally, the country holding the EU presidency distributes mementos during meetings to introduce their country and remind participants of the presidency agenda.

The Presidency Committee explained how such mementos are selected, and discussed what kind of mementos would be most relevant to the leaders of the EU and the Member States, as well as ministers, experts and the media. The presidency mementos are to match the visual identity and key messages of Estonia’s presidency, which are scheduled to be made public in April, promoting Estonia as a smart e-country with a clean environment.

The Presidency Committee also discussed the list of high-level conferences to be held in Estonia during the presidency and was informed about the public procurements being prepared and implemented, the organisation of presidency communication and other current issues.