Spain explains its priorities for the Presidency of the EU

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, has explained the objectives of the Spanish Presidency of the EU at the headquarters of the European Council and maintained that all the political initiatives of the six-month period which begins on 1 January will be designed to overcome the economic crisis, based on the principles of innovation, peace, welfare and gender equality.

Moratinos stressed that, with these objectives Spain is placing itself 'modestly and discreetly' at the disposal of the people who have assumed the responsibilities which traditionally fell to the head of government and foreign affairs minister of the country holding the rotating presidency, following the coming into effect of the Treaty of Lisbon. 

In his first speech in front of the international media to present the rotating presidency's priorities, the minister said that Spain had prepared its Presidency 'with a sense of the historic moment'  implied by the presence of the permanent president, the Belgian, Herman Von Rompuy, and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton from the UK.

In the same vein, both he and the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, 'will collaborate' with both Von Rompuy and Ashton, especially in those matters in which 'for historic reasons or reasons of proximity' Spain can play an important role, such as Latin America, the Caribbean, the Maghreb and the Middle East. Spain's ambition is to strengthen ties with these regions, as well as with the USA, Russia, Japan and Mexico - countries with which summits will be held during the six-month period.

The Spanish minister also referred to the enlargement of the EU to include Croatia, which could finalise its accession negotiations under the Spanish Presidency, and Iceland, which has recently requested admission to the EU.

Moratinos went over the four main themes of Spain's six months at the helm of the EU:

  • Applying the Treaty of Lisbon.
  • Economic growth.
  • Promoting Europe's global role.
  • Developing a 21st-century citizenship.

To overcome the economic and financial crisis, Spain is determined to approve a post-Lisbon strategy, designed to contribute to a new model for growth which enables the EU to re-emerge from the slump and become a competitive player at world level. He advocated introducing some kind of binding mechanism which obliges the EU's member states to fulfil the aims of this common strategy for modernising the economy to 2020.

As regards the commitment to equality between men and women, Spain is going to present a series of proposals which will refer to the fight against gender-based violence and workplace discrimination, including setting up a European Monitoring Centre to keep watch on offences of this kind. Recently, the European Insitute for Gender Equality has opened its doors in Vilnius (Lithuania), and there is a Commission's Roadmap for equality between women and men, adopted in 2006  under the Progress Programme framework.