On 1st July 2010 Belgium assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Belgian Presidency is the second of the three within the context of the “trio presidency” whereby three successive Member States work together over an eighteen month period to accomplish a common agenda with the current president continuing the work of the previous "lead-president" after the end of its term. Belgium is taking over from Spain and be succeeded by Hungary on January 1, 2011.

On June 14, Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and those federal, regional and community ministers who are to chair formations of the Council of the European Union presented the Belgian Presidency’s political and legislative priorities to the European Parliament. Mr. Leterme made a point of stressing the Belgian Presidency’s desire to make the new institutions resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon operational.

Other main themes of the Belgian Presidency are the EU 2020 Strategy and strengthening the European economic governance, the establishment of the European External Action Service, the fight for a cleaner environment and against climate change, the implementation of the Stockholm Programme and the creation of a common European asylum policy, as well as the effective and efficient implementation of the European citizens’ initiative.

To present and discuss the priorities of the Belgian Presidency, as well as Malta’s priorities within the EU for the next six months, the Embassy of Belgium in Malta and the Malta-EU Steering & Action Committee organised a Dialogue that was held on Friday 9th July 2010 at Dar l-Ewropa in Valletta.

The Priorities of the Belgian Presidency were presented by Mr. Jean-François Delahaut, Ambassador of Belgium to Malta. Dr Tonio Borg, Malta’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs provided an insight into Malta’s reactions, perspectives and priorities for this semester.