Portugal takes over the EU Presidency, January-June 2000, January 2000

On 1 January 2000 Portugal assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the period January-June 2000. Portugal took over from Finland and will be followed in turn in July 2000 by France.

The functions of the Presidency are nor formally defined in the EU Treaties apart from stating that each Member State will successively hold the office for a period of six months. The functions have evolved over the years. Essentially, the Member State that holds the Presidency of the Council becomes the business manager of the EU, laying down the agenda, organising and chairing all meetings, and representing the EU to the outside world during the six months of office. Thus, the Presidency is seen as a major responsibility for the Member State holding the Office and considerable manpower and financial resources are required.

The order by which Member State holds the Presidency has evolved over the years for a number of reasons. Since 1995 the order has been: Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Finland, Portugal, France, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Denmark and Greece. This order ensures that a 'large' Member State is always within the 'troika' of Presidencies, whereby the current Presidency country co-operates with the immediate past and future Presidencies to ensure continuity of EU business.

Further information on the development and functions of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union is provided on the website of the Finnish EU Presidency.

The Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, January-June 2000

Like all Presidencies of the past few years, Portugal has launched a website which provides information on the Programme of the Presidency, a calendar of meetings to take place during the Presidency and much further information:

• Portugal EU Presidency website
• Portugal EU Presidency website: Programme
• Portugal EU Presidency website: Calendar
• Portugal EU Presidency website: Sitemap (showing the full contents of site)

The Programme of the Portuguese Presidency

The key objectives, as noted in the Presidency Programme, are as follows:

• To guarantee that the priority to create the basic conditions for the accession of new States is projected in all fields of action of the European Union.
• To launch a new Intergovernmental Conference on institutional reform, in a perspective of continuity that simultaneously and cumulatively combines efficiency, democracy, acceptability and compatibility of the exercise with the realistic aim of concluding the process without affecting the desirable calendar for the Union to be prepared for the accession of new States.
• To deepen the debate on the social and economic dimension of the Union's action, considering the need to adopt policies to ensure its competitiveness on the world stage. These reforms must always be compatible with the preservation and modernisation of the European social model, with the priority given to fight against citizens' social exclusion and for promoting education, life long training and equality, along with the respect for the environmental dimension and with the exploration of the potential introduced by the single currency and the use of new technologies, in particular in the framework of the information society.
• To consolidate the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) project as an essential element to promote sustained, non-inflationary, job-creating growth and to assert the European Union's position as a structuring bloc of the world economy.
• To contribute to promote policies to establish a sense of European citizenship involving a closer relationship between citizens and the Union, fully respecting the principle of subsidiarity and the adoption of models of openness to society marked by the transparency of institutions.
• To strengthen the external dimensions of the European Union's action by promoting international co-operation and political dialogue, enhancing structures and encouraging coherent policies which assert the Union as a power on the world stage.
• To pursue the decisions leading to the establishment of the European Union's future security and defence capabilities in a framework of coherence with the reinforcement of Union external diplomatic action dimensions and in harmony with other commitments of Member States, particularly in the framework of NATO.
• To encourage, in the light of the provisions of the Treaty of Amsterdam and of the decisions of the Tampere European Council, the launch of measures to promote within the Union the establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice in order to respond to European citizens' concerns, associating the dimensions of public security and regulation of free movement with the respect for a European culture of freedom that is the core of its own civilisation project.
• To continue and to give impetus to the issues currently being negotiated within the scope of the Union, in its various sectors of activity, in particular strengthening the policies on which the internal market is based, the common policies and the models of legislative approximation among Member States in order to comply with the expectations that European citizens place in their collective project.
• To seek an understanding within the Council concerning the Statute for the Members of the European Parliament. Considering the need to ensure transparency, dignity of office and equal treatment between MEPs, regardless of their country of origin, the Portuguese Presidency will, under the terms of the Treaty, endeavour to conclude MEPs Statute along the lines drafted by the competent bodies of the European Parliament.

Further information

It has become a tradition over the last few years for the European Commission President and his fellow European Commissioners to visit the capital city of the Member State holding the Presidency in the first few days of the Presidency to confer and issue a joint statement. For the Portuguese Presidency, this meeting took place in Lisbon on Monday 10 January 2000. The statement issued is accessible at:

A further tradition is for the President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union (that is, the Foreign Minister of the Presidency country) to attend the first plenary session of the European Parliament following the start of a Presidency to present his or her country's Presidency Programme. For Portugal this took place during the plenary session 17-21 January 2000 in Strasbourg and is reported in The Week (click on 'Collection 2000').

During each Presidency the country holding the office organises one or more European Council meetings (for further details on the European Council see In Focus 08/99). Portugal has scheduled two European Councils: the main one will take place 19-20 June 2000 in Santa Maria da Feira, and there will be a special European Council on 23-24 March 2000 in Lisbon with the theme 'Employment, Economic Reform and Social Cohesion'.

Further information within European Sources Online:

European Sources Online: European Voice:
	16.12.99:	Portuguese Presidency
Further information can be seen in: (long-term access to these links cannot be guaranteed)
BBC News Online:
	1.1.00:	http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid%5F587000/587152.stm

Ian Thomson
Executive Editor, European Sources Online
Compiled: 9 January 2000

On 1 January 2000 Portugal assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the period January-June 2000. Portugal took over from Finland and will be followed in turn in July 2000 by France.