The Spanish Government, currently holding the EU Presidency is to meet the new European Commission in Madrid on 23 February to study the priorities for the Spanish term, and to prepare for the March Council meeting, which will work on designing the basic structure for a new EU model of economic policy.

The Commission always meets with the Government of the member state that holds the presidency at the start of its six-month presidency, but in this case the meeting, which should have been held on 8 January, has not been called until now, due to the delay in appointing the Commission.

The Spanish Government would like to establish “efficient, fast channels of collaboration to make progress on the priorities of the Presidency that require action on the part of the Commission”. The European Commission has already published a working document establishing the economic development targets for the EU, the “Europe 2020” Strategy, with proposals including “encouraging low-carbon emitting industries, investing in R&D, the development of the digital economy and modernisation of education and training”.

It also aims to “strengthen the common market and re-establish control of national budget deficits, demanding better co-ordination in economic policies in line with the proposals presented by the Spanish Presidency”. The priorities to be presented to the Commission include the issue of climate change and the need to develop a position in relation to the upcoming United Nations Conference in Mexico, “to avoid a repeat performance of the previous (conference) in Copenhagen”.

The Presidency will also focus on the importance of making progress on creating the European External Action Service, because without it, the new external policy that came into existence with the Treaty of Lisbon “is just a worthless piece of paper”.

Summit meetings with other countries and regions will also be discussed; the Presidency would like, in particular, to improve the relationship with Central America and Mercosur, as it has already shown after its meeting with Brasil. The Union for the Mediterranean meeting will be held in Barcelona regardless of the peace negotiations in the Middle East, although the Spanish Government hopes the process will receive recognition in the next few weeks.