Gathered in Brussels, the European leaders adopted the EU's Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024
Gathered at the summer European Council on June 20-21, the European leaders adopted the EU's strategic agenda for 2019-2024. The document establishes four priorities: protecting citizens and freedoms, developing a strong and vibrant economic base, building a climate-neutral, green, fair and social Europe, and promoting European interests and values on the global stage.
The heads of state and government, however, did not manage to reach an agreement on the holders of the main offices, despite the talks that the President of the European Council Donald Tusk had held in the past weeks with both European leaders and leaders of political groups. Negotiations were carried out on a package of four positions, taking into consideration criteria such as gender equality, geographic position and share in the European Parliament. Donald Tusk has stated that the European Council had a full discussion of nominations taking into account consultations and statements made within the European Parliament, but there was no majority on any candidate. The Council therefore agreed to convene again on the 30th of June.
The most disputed office is that of President of the European Commission, for which Jean-Claude Juncker's successor will have to get at least 21 votes from the member states, and also the absolute majority in the European Parliament. There are several candidates for the office: the German Manfred Weber, the leader of the European People's Party, the Dutch Frans Timmermans, representing the Socialists and Democrats, and the Danish Margrethe Vestager, supported by Liberals and Centrists.
At the summit in Brussels, where the Romanian head of state Klaus Iohannis made a presentation of the results obtained by Romania during its 6-month Presidency of the Council of the EU, the European leaders hailed the activity carried out by Romania with regard to the multi-annual financial framework, where agreements were reached on 10 sectoral programmes out of the 37 proposed by the European Commission. The Romanian Presidency was a very good one, with a large number files that have been successfully completed, president Iohannis said before the European Council meeting, also recalling that the summit in Sibiu, on May9th, was a globally acknowledged success.
Useful Links
Copyright © . All rights reserved