Unveiling the Belgian Presidency

Policy priorities

General Political Programme

The Belgian Presidency has six major priorities for the European Union:
 Implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force on 1 December 2009;
 Launch of the EU 2020 strategy, which will guide EU policies in the coming decade;
 Pursuit of international climate and energy negotiations;
 Implementation of the Stockholm programme in the areas of justice, asylum and immigration;
 Continuation of enlargement negotiations;
 Preparation of 2011 budget and mid-term revision of financial perspectives.

The Belgian Presidency will also continue the work on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). This will be part of the efforts to demonstrate the added value of the European Union to citizens.

Under the Belgian Presidency, the Council of the European Union adopt employment guidelines.

The Belgian Presidency will also continue the work started by the Monti report, identifying the bottlenecks, missing links and new frontiers of the internal market.

Smart regulation will be another area of action. The Commission communication on smart regulation instruments will be discussed by the Council of the European Union.

Health policy priorities

The Belgian Presidency has outlined several priorities for health such as:

 Health inequalities
 Management of public health risks (particularly the evaluation of the influenza pandemic response)
 The fight against cancer
 Chronic disease
 Solidarity and innovation in the proprietary medicinal products sector
 Determining social factors of health
 Health professionals (the Presidency will organize a European summit on this issue on the 9 and 10 September 2010, the results of which will feed into Council conclusions)

At the same time, work will continue on several dossiers, specified below.

Under the Belgian Presidency negotiations will continue on the draft directive relating to cross-border healthcare.

In the area of pharmaceutical policy, the Council will continue to work on legislative initiatives on combating the counterfeiting of medicines, and pharmacovigilance.

The Belgian Presidency will take the lead in preparing and coordinating the European Union delegation for the Conference of the Parties on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

It intends to continue work on the proposal for a regulation relating to food information for consumers. Moreover, the Presidency will attempt to reach an agreement on the proposal for a regulation concerning novel foods and their release on the market.

The EPSCO Council will meet during an informal session of the Ministers of Health in July. The Ministers of Health will discuss issues that that need to be further explored in the EU, such as cooperation in the fight against cancer, the treatment of cancer, the conclusions of the pandemic council, and emergency security responses. A high-level strategic meeting held with the cooperation of the European Commission aims at drawing conclusions on how to improve access to medicines. The Ministerial Conference will be held on 23 – 24 September 2010.

Activities foreseen include:
 Ministerial Conference: Investing in the health professionals on 9-10 September 2010
 Hepatitis B and C in European summit conference on 14 - 15 October 2010
 Innovative approaches for chronic illness in Public health and healthcare systems On 19 - 20 October 2010

Global health policy priorities

The Presidency will continue the work started by the Doha Development Round with an aim to bringing it to a conclusion.

Belgium will also work in preparation for the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to mark the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Declaration.

The United Nations Summit on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be held in New York in September. The summit will evaluate the progress made on accomplishing the MDGs, and identify the action needed to accomplish them by 2015.

During the Belgian Presidency there the EU-Africa Summit will be held, allowing European and African partners to discuss issues of peace and security, development, MDGs and climate change.

The European Union will also work on strengthening synergies between development and the fight against climate change.

Social Policy

The programme of the Belgian Presidency has a strong social component. It will push to strengthen the European social model since “social progress is just as important a challenge as economic performance.” Special emphasis will be placed on social cohesion. The Belgian Presidency will promote social convergence to higher standards through outlining objectives and performance indicators.

It will also monitor the social impact of the financial crisis and keep the topic on the agenda for the Ministers of Social Affairs, specifically the role of automatic economic stabilizers.

Budget

The Belgian Presidency has a budget of 74,066 million €. In addition, 16 million € will be spent on security. This budget is about 12 million € less than that of the Spanish Presidency.

For Further Information

Website of the Belgian Presidency

The full programme of the Belgian Presidency

Related EPHA Articles

 Guide to the Swedish Presidency
 Spanish Health Minister discusses priorities for Presidency
 Unveiling the Spanish Presidency of the Council