Consistency and diversity? The EU's rotating trio Council Presidency after the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract

The Lisbon Treaty introduced significant changes to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). The new Treaty combines a permanent chair with the principle of rotation based on three member states collaborating during an 18-month period, without specifying the responsibilities of trio groups. This left wide scope for the first post-Lisbon trio to establish new working mechanisms. By discussing the joint Presidency of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, this article interprets the trio model and its combination with the permanent chair model as an attempt to re-adjust the balance between consistency and diversity. Rotation remains a key instrument for ensuring the representation of the diversity of member states in an enlarged Union. At the same time, the EU's ever more complex policy agenda and a greater need for collective leadership motivate the search for new forms of co-operation to enhance policy consistency over consecutive Presidency terms.

Keywords:

• Council
• European Council
• Lisbon Treaty
• Presidency
• trio Presidency

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge a research grant from Central European University supporting the research carried out in connection with this article. They thank Stefan Cibian and Johannes Müller for research assistance, as well as the JEPP referees, for their helpful comments.

Notes

Council Decision 2006/683/EC adopting the Council's Rules of Procedure, published in OJ L285/47.

Declarations Annexed to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference Which Adopted the Treaty of Lisbon, signed on 13 December 2007.

European Council Decision 2009/881/EU on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council, Article 1, published in OJ L315/50.

As specified in Corrigendum to Council Decision 2009/908/EU, published in OJ L344/56.

European Council Decision 2009/882/EU adopting its Rules of Procedure, Article 4.

Ibid., Article 3.

European Council Decision 2009/881/EU on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council, Article 1.

See, for example, http://www.eu2007.de/en/News/Press_Releases/January/0114BMIDresden1.html [accessed 8 November 2010].

Intervention by Anton Bebler, former Slovenian diplomat at the University of Ljubljana, at the workshop ‘First time Hungarian presidency, first time in a trio’, Central European University, Budapest, 29–30 October 2010.

Interview with former senior German government official, March 2010, Budapest.

See, for example, http://www.eu2007.de/en/News/Press_Releases/June/0626BMIBilanzTrio.html [accessed 29 November 2010].

See http://www.eu2008.fr/PFUE/lang/en/accueil/presidence_du_conseil/pid/2538.html [accessed 29 November 2010].

Interview with Permanent Representation official, Brussels, 2 June 2010.

Interview with Permanent Representation official, Brussels, 2 June 2010.

Interviews with Belgian, Hungarian and Spanish liaison diplomats, Brussels and Budapest, 3 June and 20 May 2010.

Interview with senior official, Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Budapest, 27 May 2010.

Interviews with permanent representation officials, Brussels, 2 and 3 June.

Interview, Brussels, 3 June 2010.

Interview with Permanent Representation official, Brussels, 2 June 2010.

Interviews with Belgian diplomat, Brussels, 3 June 2010; Council Secretariat official, 3 June 2010.

Interview with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)official, Budapest, 20 May 2010.

Interviews with Permanent Representation officials, Brussels, 1 and 3 June 2010.

Interview with Council Secretariat official, Brussels, 3 June 2010.

As quoted by Agence Europe, Bulletin No. 10009, 30 October 2010.

El País, 3 January 2010, emphasis as in the original, authors’ translation, http://www.elpais.com/articulo/opinion/cuarteto/europeo/elpepusocdgm/20100103elpdmgpan_6/Tes?print=1 (accessed 3 July 2011).

See, for example, ‘Obama's Madrid snub exposes “excessive” EU summitry’, Euractiv, 2 February 2010, available at http://www.euractiv.com/future-eu/obamas-madrid-snub-exposes-excessive-eu-summitry (accessed 14 October 2011).

Interview with member of the cabinet of Catherine Ashton, Brussels, 17 October 2011.

Records of the European Parliament's debate on ‘The programme of activities of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council’, 19 January 2010, available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20110119+ITEM-005+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN (accessed 28 October 2011).

See, for example, the records of the European Parliament's debate on ‘The review of the Hungarian Presidency’, 5 July 2010, available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20110705+ITEM-005+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN (accessed 28 October 2011).

Interviews with members of the cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy, Brussels, 4 and 8 July 2011.

Interview with member of the cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy, Brussels, 8 July 2011.