Meeting between the Belgian EU Presidency and the European Parliament’s political groups
In Egmont Palace on 21 and 22 June, Prime Minister Yves Leterme, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, State Secretary for European Affairs Olivier Chastel, the Ministers-President of Belgium’s Communities and Regions, and all the ministers chairing a Council formation met MEPs from the EPP, S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA groups.
It is customary for delegations from the political groups to visit the incoming Presidency with a view to ascertaining its intentions. In the course of the visit, key issues for the political groups were discussed, as were the Belgian Presidency’s political and legislative priorities.
The topics touched on included the economic and financial crisis, the emergence from it, the EU 2020 Strategy, the budget, the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Stockholm Programme, climate change and the environment. The prime minister stressed the desire of the Belgian Presidency to apply the new Treaty both in letter and in spirit and facilitate the institutions’ smooth operation. He also underlined the need to eliminate some of the legislative backlog through effective cooperation with the European Parliament. Yves Leterme said that only if the Council and the other EU institutions pulled together could Europe rise to the challenges currently facing it and deal with topical issues, especially in the socio-economic domain. As President of the General Affairs Council, Steven Vanackere set himself the priority of working with Cathy Ashton to set up the EEAS. The political agreement on this reached yesterday in Madrid is extremely encouraging and should enable the Council to issue a Decision in the course of July. Smooth cooperation with the European Parliament will remain indispensable for the subsequent phases of the EEAS’s establishment, which Belgium is hoping to conclude by the end of its Presidency. The enlargement process will also be treated as a priority. The meetings with the MEPs helped to gain a better appraisal of the issues in the negotiations currently under way and to present Belgium’s outlook as an ‘honest broker’ in this connection, EU membership being of capital importance to the candidate countries.
State Secretary for European Affairs Olivier Chastel emphasised the need to maintain good relations with the European Parliament in view of the major role given to that institution by the Lisbon Treaty. These 4 meetings follow on from the secretary of state’s previous consultations, begun back in November 2009.
The 4 meetings in question also provided an opportunity to identify common ground with the various political groups and lay down bases for negotiations on the most important legislative issues.
