German EU Council Presidency 2007

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German EU Council Presidency 2007 logo
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country GermanyGermany Germany
Term of office January 1, 2007 - June 30, 2007
Chair Angela Merkel
Web presence Germany 2007 - Presidency of the European Union. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 25, 2016 ; accessed on March 3, 2019 .
chronology
◀   Finland Portugal   ▶

The German EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2007 refers to the rotating presidency of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Council of the European Union on the basis of Art. 203 sentence 1 of the EC Treaty in conjunction with Council Decision 2005/902 / EC, EURATOM. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was President of the European Council , the other members of the German government in the Cabinet Merkel I initiated the different formations of the Council of Ministers. Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier chaired the Council for General Affairs and External Relations .

The German Presidency from January 1 to June 30, 2007 was carried out under the three-man presidency , which also included the following Portuguese and Slovenian presidencies .

Political agenda

Advertising banners on an ICE 3M on the occasion of the German EU Council Presidency
2007 postage stamp

When presenting the political agenda of the German Council Presidency, the German Chancellor mentioned in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on January 17, 2007, the further development of the European constitutional process, the further development of the common energy and environmental policy and the improvement of the transatlantic relationship.

European Constitutional Treaty

At the beginning of its Council Presidency, the German Federal Government placed the focus of its program on the revival of the political process on the way to a European Constitutional Treaty , which in its original form, adopted by the European Constitutional Convention, had been rejected by referendums in May and June 2005 by France and the Netherlands . In her speech to the European Parliament on January 17, 2007, the German Chancellor declared the "reflection phase" to be over and declared that the constitutional question would be resolved by the 2009 European elections. In the so-called "Berlin Declaration" on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome , the Federal Government achieved unity among the member states in an effort to "put the EU on a renewed common basis" until the 2009 European elections.

At the European Council in Brussels, the members agreed in lengthy negotiations on the cornerstones of an EU reform that should contain the “substance” of the constitution. The key points of the basic treaty include the establishment of an EU Council President and a High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, additional majority decisions in the Council and more rights for the European Parliament and the national parliaments. The number of EU commissioners was to be reduced to 18 in 2014 and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was made binding, except for Great Britain.

Environmental and energy policy

In the run-up to the Brussels spring summit of the European Council on March 8, 2007, the German Council President pleaded for an ambitious climate protection policy. The final Brussels decision envisaged a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to the 1990 level as part of a binding unilateral commitment. This percentage is to be increased to 30% in the event that other industrialized countries take similar measures. There is disagreement on the question of the energy mix. The German Council Presidency, together with the European Commission and other countries such as Denmark and Sweden, are aiming to increase the share of renewable energies in total energy consumption to 20% by 2020. Traditionally nuclear energy- friendly member states such as France or the Czech Republic , on the other hand, stuck to this form of energy, emphasizing the zero emissions of nuclear power plants .

Neighborhood policy

Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. The association talks with Serbia were resumed after a one-year break in negotiations, and accession negotiations were also continued with Turkey.

A new partnership and cooperation agreement with Russia failed due to objections from Poland, which refused to accept a Russian meat embargo against itself. In the Middle East conflict, the German Council Presidency successfully tried to convene the Middle East Quartet without, however, achieving concrete peace results in connection with the fighting in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

The Union has also developed new criteria for its neighborhood policy, which, in particular, neighboring countries in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Moldova) are intended to bind to the EU even without full membership.

Other policy areas

On a German initiative, the EU pledged to save 1.3 billion euros annually by simplifying industry procedures. For roaming charges, an upper limit of 58.3 cents per minute for outgoing and 28.5 cents for incoming calls was decided. The Europe-wide liberalization of the postal markets for 2009 failed due to resistance from individual states.

The EU Justice Ministers in the Justice and Home Affairs Council decided to network the criminal records of the individual states and to set up a visa database. A European Network of Advisory Teams (EuNAT) established in the previous year for the cross-border prosecution of kidnapping , hostage-taking and extortion with threats to human life was expanded and linked to Europol .

In the field of cashless payments, it was decided that, from 2008, transnational transfers and direct debits should not be more expensive than domestic transfers. The finance ministers decided on the single European payment area and in research policy the founding of a European Technology Institute was decided.

Ministerial meeting

An overview of the ministerial meetings according to the information on the website of the German Council Presidency.

  • January 14-16, 2007: Informal meeting of ministers for Justice and Home Affairs in Dresden
  • January 18-20, 2007: Informal meeting of ministers for employment and social affairs in Berlin
  • February 12-13, 2007: Informal meeting of ministers for culture and media in Berlin
  • March 1st to 2nd, 2007: Informal meeting of ministers for education in Heidelberg
  • March 1st to 2nd, 2007: Informal Defense Ministerial Meeting in Wiesbaden
  • March 12-13, 2007: Informal ministerial meeting on development cooperation in Bonn / Petersberg
  • 30th to 31st March 2007: Informal meeting of foreign ministers in Bremen
  • April 19-20, 2007: Informal meeting of ministers for health in Aachen
  • April 20-21, 2007: Informal meeting of economics and finance ministers in Berlin
  • April 26-27, 2007: Informal meeting of the ministers for research and economics in Würzburg
  • May 15-16, 2007: Informal meeting of ministers for gender equality and the family in Bad Pyrmont
  • May 20-22, 2007: Informal meeting of the Agriculture Ministers in Mainz / Rheingau
  • May 24-25, 2007: Informal meeting of the transport, telecommunications and energy ministers in Leipzig
  • June 1st to 3rd, 2007: Informal environment ministerial meeting in Essen

literature

Web links

Commons : German EU Council Presidency 2007  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Great challenges for the German EU presidency. In: dw.com. Deutsche Welle, November 15, 2006, accessed on February 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Michael Stabenow: Merkel wants to save the EU constitution. In: faz.net. January 17, 2007, accessed February 16, 2020 .
  3. ^ EU divided over nuclear and renewable energies. In: EurActiv.de. March 8, 2007, accessed February 16, 2020 .
  4. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: EuNAT ) on the homepage of the Belgian Council Presidency 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / police-eu2010.be
  5. ↑ Europol supports the development of the European Network of Advisory Teams ( Memento of May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Website of the German Council Presidency. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 2, 2016 ; accessed on March 3, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eu2007.de
predecessor Office successor
Finnish EU Council Presidency EU Council Presidency
January 1, 2007 to June 30, 2007 		Portuguese EU Council Presidency