Swedish EU Council Presidency 2009

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Swedish EU Presidency 2009 logo
logo
country SwedenSweden Sweden
Term of office July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009
Chair Fredrik Reinfeldt
Web presence http://www.se2009.eu/
chronology
◀   Czech Republic Spain   ▶
President of the European Council Fredrik Reinfeldt
Council President Carl Bildt

The Swedish EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2009 marks Sweden's presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Council . According to the schedule, the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt took over the chairmanship of the European Council on July 1, 2009 , while the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt took over the office of President of the Council of the European Union . The second triple presidency , which had also included the previous French and Czech EU Council presidencies , ended with Sweden . From January 1, 2010, Spain took over the Council Presidency.

Since the Treaty of Lisbon came into force during the Swedish Council Presidency , Reinfeldt was the last head of government to preside over the European Council. As of December 1, 2009, this passed to the newly appointed full-time Council President Herman Van Rompuy , whose office had been newly created by the treaty. The European Council on 10/11 December 2009 was still led by Reinfeldt, Van Rompuy only took part.

subjects

One of the issues the European Union faced during the Swedish Presidency was the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty , which aims to reform the EU's political system . After the treaty was rejected in a referendum in Ireland in 2008, a new referendum took place in that country in October 2009, which ended with an approval of the treaty. In addition, following the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of June 30, 2009 , the German Bundestag and Bundesrat drafted a new law accompanying the treaty, so that Germany could also ratify the treaty. After the Irish referendum, the Polish President Lech Kaczyński also signed his country's instrument of ratification. The last obstacle on the way to ratification was the signature of the Czech President, Václav Klaus . In a telephone conversation with Reinfeldt, the latter had stipulated that a “footnote” to the contract would rule out that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights could be used as a starting point for repealing the Beneš decrees . Reinfeldt initially criticized these additional demands at the autumn meeting of the European Council on 29/30. However, an agreement was reached in October 2009. At the beginning of November, the Czech Republic ratified the treaty so that it could come into force on December 1st.

Another topic of the Swedish Presidency was the appointment of the new European Commission after the mandate of the Barroso I Commission expired in November 2009. Although already had European Council in mid-June its support for a second term of 2009 Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso expressed, but these came in the European Parliament on resistance, where the factions of the Social Democrats and the Greens had opposed Barroso. On September 16, 2009, Barroso was re-elected for a second term with 382 of 718 valid votes.

After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the new posts created by the Treaty (in particular that of the permanent President of the European Council and the new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy ) were filled. This was only discussed unofficially at the autumn summit of the European Council and an additional summit was scheduled for November 19. Due to his successful negotiations on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, Reinfeldt himself was briefly in talks for the new office of the Council President; however, he refused with reference to his office in Sweden. Finally, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy was nominated as Council President and the British Catherine Ashton as High Representative. Shortly afterwards, the other members of the Barroso II Commission were also nominated, but their confirmation by the European Parliament was not planned for the beginning of 2010.

Finally, in December 2009, the UN climate conference took place in Copenhagen , at which a follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol was to be agreed. The European Union tried to play a leading role in negotiating this conference. The topic of the autumn summit was therefore also the common position of the EU in Copenhagen, in particular the financing of EU climate policy and the support that developing countries should be offered for better climate protection. Although a minimum compromise was reached here, the summit fell short of expectations, as Eastern European countries in particular feared being overwhelmed by the financial burden. The EU did not play a central role at the conference itself either: the final document - the Copenhagen Accord - was essentially based on an agreement between the United States , China and some emerging countries and, contrary to what the EU called for, did not contain a legally binding agreement. Fredrik Reinfeldt, José Manuel Barroso and other European politicians therefore criticized the results of the conference as inadequate.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Van Rompuy's agenda for the week of December 7th to 13th, 2009 (PDF; 73 kB).
  2. ^ Die Presse , October 9, 2009: EU Treaty: Vaclav Klaus wants a footnote .
  3. ^ Die Presse , October 30, 2009: Barroso and Reinfeldt relieved after agreement on the EU Treaty .
  4. ↑ EurActiv 19/06/2009 : Barroso receives blessing for second term .
  5. ↑ EurActiv , June 18, 2009: EU summit aims to counteract the chain of unfortunate events .
  6. ↑ EurActiv , Oct 30, 2009: Search for EU president continues after summit .
  7. ↑ Tagesschau , November 19, 2009: New EU leadership duo nominated .
  8. ↑ EurActiv , October 30, 2009: EU leaders fail to work out further climate details .
  9. ↑ Euranet, December 21, 2009: After the climate conference in Copenhagen ( Memento of the original of January 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) 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.euranet.eu
predecessor Office successor
Czech EU Council Presidency EU Council Presidency
July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009 		Spanish EU Council Presidency