BELGIUM READY TO TAKE ON LEGACY ISSUES DURING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 000097

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EUR/WE, EUR/ERA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR BE
SUBJECT: BELGIUM READY TO TAKE ON LEGACY ISSUES DURING
UPCOMING EU PRESIDENCY

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1. (SBU) Summary: On December 18, EUR/WE Director Maureen
Cormack met
with Willem Van De Voorde, Deputy Director General for
European
Affairs at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Van De
Voorde will be coordinating the substantive policy issues
relating
to Belgium's EU presidency in July-December 2010. Van De
Voorde
discussed five "legacy" issues that were developed under
previous
presidencies and will continue under the Belgians. These are
1)
putting the Lisbon Treaty into practice, 2) dealing with the
current
financial crisis, 3) environment and climate change, 4) the
Justice
and Home Affairs (JHA) work program, also known as the
"Stockholm
program" and 5) conducting important external meetings and
summits,
such as the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). Van De Voorde said
that
Belgium's own priorities are still under discussion and have
not yet
been established. The Belgian priorities are likely to have
an
accent on workers' rights, social justice and
non-discrimination, he
said. End Summary.


2. (SBU) To better understand the Belgian MFAs role in the
EU presidency,
Maureen Cormack, the U.S. State Department's Director of
Western
European Affairs (EUR/WE) met with Willem Van De Voorde,
Deputy
Director General for European Affairs, at the Belgian
Ministry of
Foreign Affairs on December 18. VanDe Voorde will be
coordinating
the program f the Belgian EU presidency starting in July 1,

2010.
His unit is headed by its Director Gneral, Xavier Demoulin.
Demoulin will coordinae his activities with a State
Secretary,
Olivier Chastel, a political appointee, who has similar
duties but
approaches them from a political, as opposed to a
bureaucratic,
point of view, according to Van De Voorde.


3. (SBU) Van De Voorde stated that it is still too early to
define
Belgium's own priorities for its presidency. He expects
that they
will be published around May 2010. He said that the accent
in the
Belgian program is likely to be on workers' rights, social
justice
and non-discrimination, based on the influence of the
francophone
Socialist Party in the Belgian government. He also listed
five
elements of the "legacy program" introduced and developed
under
earlier presidencies, on which Belgium will be working after
it
takes over the Council presidency from the Spanish. These
are: 1)
putting the Lisbon Treaty into practice, 2) dealing with the
current
financial crisis, 3) environment and climate change, 4) the
Justice
and Home Affairs (JHA) work program, also known as the
"Stockholm
program" and 5) conducting important external meetings and
summits,
such as the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

TROJKA PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM


4. (SBU) Van De Voorde said that he expects the Spanish
presidency will
look "pretty normal", i.e., like earlier presidencies.
Belgium's
presidency will focus on implementing the new Lisbon Treaty.
Belgium is a small country, he said, but as a founding member

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it has
long experience in working within the EU. The EU's new
members
distrust some EU institutions but trust Belgium to guide the
new
institutions into their "right roles" and create the "right
precedents", he believes. The three-member presidency
"trojkas" of
the EU Council are balanced with new and old, and large and
small
EU member states, which allows for continuity and stability
over 18
months rather than just 6 months, Van De Voorde said. An
example of
this is the upcoming trojka of Spain (large EU member),
Belgium (old
EU member) and Hungary (new EU member). He said that
although all
three member states of a presidency are "in the cockpit" only
the
current Presidency country is "flying the plane."

LIFE UNDER LISBON


5. (SBU) Van De Voorde said that one important priority of
the Belgian
presidency will be putting the Lisbon Treaty into practice.
This
will include working out the details of implementation of
Lisbon
Treaty elements such as the "citizens' initiative", which are
mentioned in only general terms in the Treaty. The external
action
service (EAS) , the Council's new diplomatic corps serving
the High
Representative, Catherine Ashton, will have to be set up.
Spain
will start the work on this. Van De Voorde said the earliest
an
organizational structure for the service can be approved is
April

2010. He foresees a twelve-month transitional period during
which
chairmanship of those working groups chaired by the High
Representative under the Lisbon Treaty will be transferred
from the
member state presidency. Once an organizational diagram is
approved, the EAS will be able to recruit staff and begin
work. Van
De Voorde believes that the way trade issues are handled
under the
EU's Commissioner for Trade will be a blueprint for how
foreign
policy issues are handled by the High Representative. This
means
that the United States will be dealing directly with the High
Representative, and lobbying in the member state capitals as
well to
influence her on particular issues. The main voice will be
Ashton's, Van De Voorde said.

ECONOMIC CRISIS AFTERMATH


6. (SBU) Van De Voorde expects some important EU rules to
be created to
strengthen oversight of European banks and other financial
institutions. Although a majority of EU bankers favor
stricter
regulations that create a level playing field, Van De Voorde
expects some opposition from the financial sector in the city
of
London. The EU's new economic and social strategy, dubbed
"EU
2020" will start to grow in importance after the expiration
of the
old "Lisbon Strategy" in 2010. EU 2020 will set forth a
strategy
for finishing internal market reforms and define the
structure and
goals for job creation in "green" technology industries
within the
EU.

COP15 FOLLOW UP


7. (SBU) Van De Voorde said that the shape of the climate
change and
environmental priorities under the Belgian presidency depend
heavily

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on what comes out of the Copenhagen Summit, which was taking
place
the day of the meeting with EUR/WE Director Cormack.
Belgium's
presidency will coordinate translating a political agreement
in
Copenhagen into EU legislation. Van De Voorde thinks that
"carbon
leakage" will become a key issue affecting the
competitiveness of
European products. For example, carbon leakage occurs when
production is transferred to China, with its lax environmental
regulation, from Europe, with its strict carbon emissions
limits.
The result is damage to the EU's competitiveness with little
resulting environmental benefit, Van De Voorde said.

STOCKHOLM PROGRAM


8. (SBU) The "Stockholm Program" will develop a framework
for cooperation
across EU borders in the areas of police and customs
cooperation,
rescue services, criminal and civil law cooperation, and
asylum,
migration and visa policy for the period 2010-2014. The
program was
discussed at the informal ministerial meeting in Stockholm in
July
2009 and was adopted by the EU in December 2009. Van De
Voorde said
that he expects implementation to continue into the Belgian
presidency.

SUMMITS WITH EXTERNAL PARTNERS


9. (SBU) Van De Voorde said that organizing and planning of
the EU's
high-level meetings with foreign partners will be most
affected by
the Lisbon Treaty. EUR/WE Director Cormack told Van De
Voorde that
the USG has not committed to holding the EU-U.S. summit in
Madrid in
May 2010 and that this could impact the planned the date of
the
EU-U.S. summit to be held in Washington during Belgium's
presidency.
Van De Voorde took note. He also said that planning has
already
started for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Brussels
October 4-5,
2010, which will include 15 Asian nations and the EU.

GUTMAN
.