College of European Commissioners has visited the Belgian presidency

The delegations from Belgium and from the European Commission were welcomed on Friday afternoon by the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Hadja Lahbib at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. The meeting ended with a joint press conference by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) gets off to a flying start today with its first major event, the traditional visit by the College of European Commissioners to the Belgian federal, regional and community ministers (Belgium has three levels of power), who will hold the presidency at formal and informal Council meetings during the first half of 2024.

This visit was an opportunity for European Commissioners and Belgian ministers to meet and coordinate their work programmes. Their discussions focused on the Belgian presidency’s legislative priorities, the strategic agenda for 2024-2029 and the work programme of the European Commission.

The meeting took place at the Egmont Palace, where a large number of informal Council meetings will be held over the coming months. This prestigious building has been used for meetings and receptions by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for many years now.

This visit, however, was a special one because the five-year term of the current College of 27 Commissioners will come to an end during the Belgian presidency. After the European elections in June, a new team will be put in place. The same, for that matter, also applies to the Belgian ministers, since national and regional elections will be held in Belgium at the same time as the European elections, on 9 June.

The fact that the elections are approaching is also influencing the Belgian presidency in another way. “More than 150 legislative dossiers are still on the table. We have a few months, until mid-April, to finalise as many of them as possible,” reiterated Alexander De Croo at the press conference to mark the launch of the Belgian presidency on 8 December.

As holders of the presidency, we will be required to fulfil a dual role. Firstly, to finalise as many legislative dossiers as possible. And secondly, to prepare for the future. I am, of course, thinking of the Strategic Agenda and of the reflections we will need to have upon the future of our Union. It’s an important role. And we are keen to make this presidency a collective success – for Belgium, for Europe and with regard to the impact it will have on the world and on our citizens,” said Hadjah Lahbib.

The visit from the European Commission took place this Friday afternoon. It ended with a group photo on the marble steps of the Egmont Palace and a joint press conference with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.