On 8 July, State Secretary for European Affairs Olivier Chastel welcomed the Ministers and State Secretaries for European Affairs in Brussels.

‘I wanted to discuss two topics with my European colleagues: first of all the priorities of our Presidency, especially some specific issues where we want to achieve concrete results in, and also the relations between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament.’

After a transitional period of almost 10 years, between the Declaration of Laeken in 2001 and the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the Belgian Presidency wants to implement the new Treaty of Lisbon, both in spirit and letter, and to facilitate the good functioning of the institutions.

In this respect, Olivier Chastel summarised his meeting with the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, yesterday in Strasbourg, for his European colleagues. The State Secretaries for European Affairs of the Trio Spain – Belgium – Hungary will meet the Secretary-general of the European Parliament, Klaus Welle, on 13 July. ‘The purpose of these meetings is to follow up, in an informal way, on all issues and challenges related with legislative work’, Olivier Chastel explained. Later on, on two occasions, the President of the European Parliament will meet Prime Minister Yves Leterme, in two and four months’ time.

According to Olivier Chastel, it will be important to set a good precedent in terms of inter-institutional relations and to deal with the important load of legislative work during the upcoming semester. ‘A joint action by the Council and the other European institutions will enable us to advance work on the current challenges’, Olivier Chastel added.