On 1 January, 2014 Greece takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first six months of the new year. In four months time Greece will assume the responsibility to steer the work of the EU Council together with its trio partners namely Ireland, whose Presidency came to a close at the end of last June and Lithuania which currently holds the Presidency.
It is the practice that before assuming the EU Presidency the EU country concerned announces in advance the priorities it intends to address during its Presidency. Although each Presiding country should provide continuity to the work of the previous two Presidencies, which after all is the purpose of having a Trio of countries working together , it has the liberty and opportunity to determine its own priorities.
For example Ireland, apart from addressing issues of importance and concern to all EU Member States like, job creation, competitiveness of industry, the single market and the EU’s funding programme Horizon 2020, it included on its agenda youth unemployment in Ireland and the strengthening of Ireland’s position and the EU on Human Rights issues at the UN.
Lithuania took a similar approach. In its agenda for the current Presidency, while addressing actions for economic governance, financial stability and the agenda for growth which are of common concern to all EU Member States it is also focussing on issues of direct interest to the Baltic Region including calling for effective support for the European Union Baltic Sea Region and increasing the involvement of the Eastern Partnership countries at the EU level.
Greece has followed suit. Earlier this week, the Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos, from PASOK, the Greek Socialist Party which is in government in collation with the New Democracy Party of Prime Minister Antonio Samaras, presented to the Greek Cabinet the priorities of the Greek EU Presidency for the first half of 2014 which were approved unanimously. These are (1) Growth-Jobs-Cohesion (2) Further integration of the EU-Eurozone, (3) Migration-Borders-Mobility and (4) Maritime Policies.
While the first two priorities are meant to make Europe respond to the challenge of the economic crisis, safeguarding the common currency through the deepening of the European Monetary Union (EMU), while promoting direct policies for confronting the recession and unemployment by stimulating growth, the other two priorities address issues of interest and concern not only to Greece but to Malta and Italy, three Mediterranean EU Member States.
It so happens that Italy will be Presiding over the EU Council of Ministers following Greece in the second half of 2014. I see this as a great opportunity for the Mediterranean, in particular for Greece, Italy and Malta, three EU Member States on Europe’s external border, to work together during the next two Presidencies in 2014 to bring to the top of the agenda of the EU Council of Ministers the issue of illegal migration, both its negative and positive aspects, as well as other Mediterranean affairs. All three countries have an interest in addressing the problems arising from illegal migration which is having such a big social and economic impact to all three of them.
The same applies to maritime policies. The economies of Greece, Malta and Italy, depend to a large extent on maritime activities. They are all traditional maritime countries with interests in shipping, cruise liner business, fishing and of course oil exploration. Therefore cooperation in this area could only be of direct benefit to all three EU Member States and ultimately the EU itself.
All these developments bring to mind the foresight of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who, since the very beginning of this government’s mandate, recognized the importance of working closely with our Mediterranean EU partners on issues of common interest. Last month Prime Minister Joseph Muscat met Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta with whom he discussed migration issues and closer cooperation on Mediterranean affairs of mutual interest .
A week earlier, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had a similar discussion, this time over the phone, with his Greek counterpart Antonio Samaras.
We welcome Italy’s plans to rope in Malta to take an active part in the preparation of the two Presidencies of 2014 as announced by the Italian Prime Minister Letta himself, following the meeting with the Maltese Prime Minister during the latter’s official visit to Italy especially since both Greece and Italy have stated that irregular immigration and other Mediterranean issues will be high on their Presidency’s agenda.
By the time we come to host the EU Presidency in 2017, it is expected that the EU would have devised a strategy on how to address the thorny problem of irregular migration. It is in our interest, therefore, not only to follow closely developments on these issues in the coming months but to be engaged actively and contribute towards the realisation of the EU’s objectives in this regard.
Dr. Ian Borg is the Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds