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At the end of 2023, Spain completes the presidency of the European Union (EU) to hand over this task to Belgium. Thus, Belgium, the country in which the seat of the European Union is located, and which was the first to have the role of chair when this system was established, will chair for it 13 times in a row. And this presidency of Belgium happens at a key moment for the EU, since the European elections will take place at the end of this presidency, between June 6 and 9.
For Belgium, the election day will be even more important because on the same day as the European Parliament elections, national, regional and local elections will take place. Despite this, the Government of Belgium has promised to have adequate capacity and sufficient focus to carry out the task of the next president successfully. Even Spain, during its EU presidency in the second half of 2023, went through the electoral process.
Spain, during its presidency with the EU, had among its priorities the enlargement process, and Belgium is also expected to have this. During Spain's presidency, historic decisions were adopted to start membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, readiness to start conditional negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina was also expressed, and Georgia was given the status of a candidate country. There was not a single step regarding Kosovo's application for membership in the EU and this was not expected during the presidency of Spain, which is among the EU member states that strongly opposes Kosovo's independence.
However, Kosovo participated in a summit of the European Political Community that took place in Granada, Spain, as well as in a joint EU-Western Balkans summit, which took place in December in Brussels. Diplomats in Brussels say that in the first part of 2023, when Sweden held the presidency of the EU, there were attempts for the Council of the EU to examine Kosovo's application for membership in the EU and eventually give a mandate to the European Commission to compiled opinion about this application. But not even Sweden managed to secure the support of all member countries for such a thing, while Spain was among the countries that most opposed it.
Now that Belgium takes the next presidency, it is not clear whether it will reconsider Kosovo's application for EU membership, submitted at the end of 2022 when the Czech Republic held the next presidency. "This is also a legal issue, since the independence of Kosovo has not been recognized by all the member countries and in the expansion it is decided by consensus. But it is also a political issue as it is also related to Kosovo's behavior in the dialogue process with Serbia and the implementation of the obligations arising from this process", an EU diplomat told Radio Free Europe. In the documents of the Government of Belgium, where the priorities are mentioned, with which it will deal during the six months that it will be at the head of the EU, it only writes that during this period "it will advance the work in the ongoing enlargement process and above".
"The Belgian Presidency will monitor the ongoing processes with all relevant countries, in accordance with the existing methodology, based on the approach of individual merits, and the progress of each candidate in meeting the membership criteria," the priorities document states. of Belgium, which will preside over the EU in the first half of 2024. "We will encourage EU integration by promoting the necessary transformative reforms in key areas, especially the rule of law, democratic institutions, media freedom and rights fundamental", this document states.
Also, it is underlined that precisely during the presidency of Belgium with the EU, more precisely on May 1, 2024, the 20th anniversary of the largest expansion of the European Union will be marked. Belgium, as the chairman of the EU, appreciates this as "a big step towards the unification and prosperity of the continent of Europe".
Belgium, during its presidency, will also deal with the definition of a strategic agenda for the development of the EU, where enlargement will have an important place. This "strategic agenda" will set the basis for EU action in the period from 2024 to 2029. "At the same time, the presidency will pay special attention to the EU's capacities to integrate new members and advance reflections on the internal reforms that are needed for a successful enlargement in the future", says the document of the priorities of the Belgian presidency of the European Union.
As for the process of expanding the European Union, during the presidency of Belgium, membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova will be able to start, as the decision for such a thing was approved at the last meeting in December of the European Council. Bosnia and Herzegovina will be assessed in March to see whether or not it has met certain conditions to start membership negotiations. Belgium has warned it will continue to deepen cooperation with its non-EU European neighbors, from Switzerland to the Western Balkans, to tackle common challenges such as security of energy supply and migration issues. Likewise, Belgium will maintain the EU's focus on strengthening the Alliance with the United States of America and cooperation with NATO./REL
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