Belgium Pushes for Full Schengen Integration of Bulgaria and Romania
The Belgian Presidency of the EU is spearheading efforts to fully integrate Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area
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The Spanish Presidency of the European Union is going to do its best in order to support the new institutions created with the Lisbon Treaty.
This was stated in Sofia Thursday by Spain’s Ambassador to Bulgaria, Jorje Fuentes, who officially, together with representatives of Belgium and Hungary, presented the priorities of the Spanish Presidency, which will be chairing the EU Council in the first six months of 2010, and of the Spain-Belgium-Hungary trio, which will be in charge over the next year and a half.
“Spain is not aspiring to a status of international stardom,” His Excellency declared making it clear that there would be no way in which the Spanish Presidency might want to hinder the full-fledged establishment of the new factors in the EU architecture including the position of EU President, EU High Representative on Foreign Policy, and an External Action Service, thus dispelling fears about a potential rivalry between the rotating presidency and the new permanent institutions.
Ambassador Fuentes pointed to several major priorities in the work of the Spanish Presidency, including further measures to tackle the economic crisis by focusing specifically on fighting unemployment; guaranteeing the application of the Lisbon Treaty; boosting the role of the EU in international affairs through a number of diplomatic initiatives such as holding 9 bilateral summits of the EU with Canada, US, Mexico, Latin American and Caribbean states, Russia, Japan, ASEAN, Morocco, and the Mediterranean states.
A further priority is enlargement including completing the accession talks with Croatia and aiding the Western Balkans. Ambassador Fuentes has expressed Spain’s strong support for Turkey’s EU membership saying that even though this would mean it would be the largest EU state, and is different from the other members because it is Muslim, it was still much better to have Turkey as part of the EU rather than seeing it shift to other alliances.
Ambassador Fuentes expressed the understanding of the Spanish Presidency for Bulgaria’s aspirations to join both the Schenghen Agreement and the Eurozone but warned that this should not be done prematurely.
Answering a question of Novinite.com, His Excellency said the hearing of Bulgaria’s EU Commissioner-Designate Rumiana Jeleva would almost certainly be unproblematic, and declared that the portfolio of Jeleva – i.e. EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid, and Crisis Prevention – was a very important one.
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