1. The contribution of the Belgian presidency to the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon concerning the international relations of the EU
Belgium assumed the rotating presidency of the EU at a very difficult time of transition for Europe. On the one hand, the international economic crisis which erupted in 2008 is far from over and is giving rise to global tendencies towards political instability; and on the other hand, the new mechanism of the Treaty of Lisbon reinforcing the role of the EU in the world has not been implemented entirely, resulting in a partial re-nationalisation of the foreign policies of member states. These external and internal uncertainties require particular skill on the part of the rotating presidency in balancing innovation with continuity, new institutional structures with the inevitable inertia of the preceding institutional practices.
It is not very easy to achieve this necessary dynamic balance, as clearly demonstrated by the serious difficulties encountered by the Spanish presidency in the first semester of 2010. The Spanish avowal to maintain the old system (whereby the rotating presidency of the Council and the European Council played a major role, even including the choice of the agenda and the venue of the summits) had led to the cancellation of the EU/USA summit of March 2010, postponed at the request of the Americans as a consequence of the Obama administration’s unfavourable view of the progress being made in implementing the new institutional construction of the EU.
The Treaty of Lisbon which came into force on 1 December 2009 imposes appreciable limits on the powers of the rotating presidencies especially with regard to foreign policy. Not only will the High Representative for foreign and security policy have to synthesise the foreign policy powers of the council and the commission (and preside over the new council for foreign policy), but the new President of the European Council, full-time for two and a half years (renewable once), will possess a primacy of sorts where the foreign representation of the EU is concerned.
The fact that it was a Belgian, Herman van Rompuy, former Prime Minister (a member of the Flemish Christian Party) who was elected President of the European Council at the end of 2009 made it possible for the rotating Belgian presidency to be more easily eclipsed at a time when the new treaty no longer attributes a major role to the rotating presidency of the council, notably on the occasion of major international summits. This judicious option in favour of the low profile of the Belgian presidency (perhaps facilitated also by the state of the federal government – with Yves Leterme as President and Steven Vanhackere as Minister of Foreign Affairs, that is to say for current affairs – in the absence of an agreement for a new government since June 2010) resulted in a faster implementation of the Treaty of the European Union, signed in December 2007 and which came into force on 1.12.2009.
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Table of Contents
1. The contribution of the Belgian presidency to the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon concerning the international relations of the EU
2. A success and a failure of the EU: the ASEM meeting and the UN Assembly. The difficulties for the EU to impose itself as a unitary player on the international scene
3. Noticeable progress: the European Council of September 2010
Mario Telo, president of the Institute for European studies (IEE) of the Université Libre de Bruxelles during four years, is currently its vice-president and in charge of international relations. He was professor at many universities in the Americas, East Asia and Europe. Mario Telo has written 21 books and about 100 scientific articles published in ten different languages. Among his recent books are: The EU: A Civilian Power?, Palgrave 2005; The EU and New Regionalism, Ashgate 2007; The EU and Global Governance, Routledge 2009 and International Relations. A European Perspective, Ashgate 2009. He was several times advisor to the EU Council Presidency, the EU Commission and the European Parliament.
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