A sackload of burdens faces Belgium as it sits into the EU's rotating chair, writes ARTHUR BEESLEY
BELGIUM TAKES over the EU’s rotating presidency today as Europe struggles to gain the initiative in a sovereign debt crisis which has already led to the rescue of Greece and the creation of a €750 billion security net for other distressed euro zone countries.
Whether any government follows Greece is likely to be a defining issue for the Belgians, who assume the six-month presidency from Spain. Of chief concern here is the fate of Spain itself, whose fiscal weakness threatens a drastic escalation of the emergency.
Amid constant bickering between Berlin, Paris and the EU institutions in Brussels over interventions to prop up the euro, the Spanish presidency never became a prime player in the response to the debt debacle.
Belgium’s clout in the campaign may be diminished by the fact that its presidency is being managed by a caretaker government as talks continue on the formation of a new coalition after elections last month.
The Dutch-speaking Flemish separatists and French-speaking Socialists who prevailed in the poll are not natural bedfellows, so the negotiation is likely to continue for months. Yet senior Belgian sources insist its presidency will not be derailed, arguing that they have been preparing their work for two years.
Still, the authority of caretaker premier Yves Leterme is severely compromised following the collapse of his administration in its sixth month and his poor election performance.
Mr Leterme, who is in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week to mark the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgium, has dismissed any anxiety about the country’s commitment to the presidency.
Ironically, it was the appointment under Lisbon of his immediate predecessor, Herman Van Rompuy, as the first president of the European Council that prompted Mr Leterme’s return to the prime minister’s office. While his first term came to a premature end when he was implicated in judicial scandal, he later cleared his name.
At the same time, the role of the rotating presidency has been pared back under Lisbon Treaty reforms.
Mr Van Rompuy now presides over the assembly of EU leaders and is currently chairing talks on the reinforcement of its discredited system of economic governance. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is in charge of external relations.
It will still fall to the Belgians to chair meetings of European ministers, including talks on a range of topics such the formation of the union’s 2011 budget, justice issues and EU enlargement negotiations with Croatia, Iceland and Turkey.
Although a deal yesterday to open talks with Turkey on the alignment of its food safety laws with EU standards marked a small advance for the enlargement process, talks are frozen in eight other policy areas.
Belgium’s acting finance minister, Didier Reynders, may not have a place in any new coalition, but it is he who will be charged with smoothing out deep divisions among EU governments over the powers of new pan-European financial regulators. He will also seek final agreement on divisive new measures to oversee hedge fund investors. This complex day-to-day work is overshadowed, however, by financial market instability and fears that Spain might need EU/International Monetary Fund rescue aid.
Madrid denies this, but any rescue of a country whose economy is four times larger than Greece’s would mark a big escalation of the debt crisis, with a high risk of financial contagion for fiscally weak countries such as Portugal and Ireland.
Senior political sources in Belgium are adamant that the presidency will be ready for any eventuality, pointing out the country was in the chair in 2001 when the 9/11 terror attacks on the US sent shockwaves around the world.
The main task for caretaker foreign minister Steven Vanackere is to help Baroness Ashton to steer talks to conclusion on the creation of the new EU diplomatic corps.
Caretaker budget minister Melchoir Wathelet will be charged with reaching agreement with EU governments on the union’s 2011 budget. With money tight throughout the union, the idea of pan-European taxes to fund a ring-fenced European budget finds appeal in the upper reaches of the Belgian government. The notion is deeply controversial, however, and there will be many other battles to fight in the next six months.