The forthcoming six-month EU Presidency will be a great challenge for Spain and requires setting clear priorities, said Inigo de Palacio Espana, Spanish Ambassador to Serbia, on the pres conference held on the occasion of the Lisbon Treaty taking effect (http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/index_en.htm) and the start of Spanish Presidency of the Union.
Spanish Ambassador Palacio Espana and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Serbia Vincent Degert spoke about the new role of the EU Delegation following the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and on the priorities of the Spanish EU Presidency.
The priorities of the Spanish EU Presidency are the Lisbon Treaty, economic and financial crisis and sustainable development after the crisis, as well as the implementation of decisions passed at the United Nations Conference in Copenhagen regarding climate changes, pointed out Spanish Ambassador. He added that another priority will be the need to secure and consolidate the place of the EU in international politics, above all, as he said, to intensify the process of strengthening of European security, especially in the Western Balkans.
Spanish Ambassador also said that the three presidencies over the next eighteenth months – Spain, Belgium and Hungary – proposed a joint programme, which was approved by the European Council. According to this programme, Spain will especially deal with the effective implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and changes it brings to the structure of the EU institutions, promotion of economic recovery and the model of constant employment growth rate according to the strategy brought by the Treaty and covering the period until 2020, by ensuring fundamental human rights and addressing issues such as gender equality, consolidation of Europe’s role on the global political scene, defence of human rights and freedoms and fair distribution of power worldwide.
During its EU Presidency, Spain will pay particular attention to the integration of the Western Balkan countries in the EU. Ambassador Espana pointed out that Spain would focus on countries that were last to submit applications for the EU membership: Serbia, Montenegro and Albania.
According to the Head of EU Delegation to Serbia Ambassador Vincent Degert, implementation of the Lisbon Treaty brought along a number of institutional changes that were the precondition for further enlargement, which is particularly important for Serbia and the Western Balkans. Degert added that all those changes had already shown in the EU-Serbia relations. The first visible sign was the abolishment of visas, said Degert, adding that those changes reflected much more in the increased support of Serbian citizens for Serbia’s European integration.
According to Degert, Serbia’s application for the EU membership is the first challenge for the Union and its relations with Serbia at the start of 2010. He believes that the Interim Trade Agreement, which is formally to take effect on 1 February 2010, will strengthen the integration of Serbian economy in the EU and open up new business opportunities.
Ambassador Degert added that one of the EU’s key priorities were good relations between the neighburing countries in the region. He said that mutual lawsuits of Serbia and Croatia for genocide did not help the establishment of good neighbourly relations and emphasised that the issue should be resolved in a dialogue.
Degert stressed that the EU encouraged dialogue between the two countries regarding the issue, underlining that the EU also encouraged individualisation of war crimes at the national level.
