Spanish-Belgian-Hungarian Trio Discusses Presidency Matters - Main contents

Minister of State for European Union Affairs, Eniko Gyori i held talks with her Spanish and Belgian counterparts on the preparation of the European Council’s meeting in June; and the present state of the most important Presidency dossiers in Brussels on May 23rd. Following the Trio’s discussion, the Minister of State invited Member State Ministers and Ministers of State for EU Affairs to an informal lunch.

At the meeting with Olivier Chastel i and Diego López Garrido, Belgian and Spanish Ministers of State for EU Affairs respectively, Eniko Gyori informed her counterparts about the present state of the Presidency dossiers.

In relation to the preparation of the next multi-annual financial framework, Ms Gyori reported on the 19 May meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), which discussed the Presidency’s proposal on the European Parliament’s (EP) involvement in the next MFF, with a rather positive outcome. Speaking of the package of six legislative proposals, which is aimed to reinforce economic governance, the Hungarian Minister of State reminded the participants that on 17 May, the ECOFIN Council gave a mandate to the Hungarian Presidency to go beyond the compromise that was achieved by Member States in March, and to make further gestures to the EP. The aim is to achieve a first reading agreement until the end of June. Eniko Gyori stressed that the trialogue continued with the EP, and the Hungarian Presidency does its utmost to successfully reach an agreement.

Eniko Gyori, Olivier Chastel and Diego López Garrido exchanged views on the evaluation of the trio cooperation, which was launched in January 2010, and the tasks related to the transfer of duties to the next, Polish-Danish-Cypriot Presidency Trio.

Renewing an old tradition, the Minister of State invited Member State European Directors to an informal lunch. At the event, participants exchanged views on the disputed horizontal issues of the Council and the EP, and on the ways to advance those legislative dossiers that the Hungarian Presidency has assigned priority to. Eniko Gyori underlined that the Hungarian Presidency has demonstrated its intention to be a Parliament-friendly Presidency with a series of initiatives.