The Spanish authorities has formally requested to postpone the presentation of its upcoming EU presidency priorities within the European Parliament’s plenary chamber till September.
The presentation and a debate with MEPs over the programme of the council’s rotating presidency have been initially scheduled to happen on 13 July in Strasbourg — a couple of days earlier than the Spanish nationwide elections.
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However on Friday (2 June), Madrid mentioned that it had knowledgeable the communication division of the European Parliament about this choice.
I did so final Tuesday, a couple of hours after Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez referred to as for snap elections on 23 July.
The nationwide elections in Spain will happen simply three weeks after the nation assumes the six-month rotating EU presidency.
However it’s not the primary time nationwide elections happen within the context of an EU chairmanship — it additionally occurred throughout the French EU presidency final yr.
Earlier this week, the European Folks’s Celebration (EPP) chief, Manfred Weber, additionally referred to as on the president of the EU parliament Roberta Metsola to postpone the inaugural dialogue with MEPs over the Spanish presidency’s programme in a bid to keep away from a debate in the course of an electoral marketing campaign.
In a letter dated 1 June and seen by EUobsever, Weber requested to postpone the Spanish presidency debate within the plenary to September “to permit the freshly elected prime minister to current the priorities of the council exterior the home political battles”.
“I belief this slight adjustment to our institutional calendar will reinforce the legitimacy of the method,” Weber wrote, arguing that the launch speech of the council presidency is “a vital institutional second by way of accountability”
After the defeat of his Socialist get together in native elections, Sánchez has shocked everybody by transferring elections ahead.
The centre-right get together PP would win the subsequent basic elections, with a bonus of about 40 seats over the Sanchez socialist get together PSOE, in accordance with current polls.
Each time a rustic assumes the EU council’s presidency, the talk in plenary normally takes place within the first month of the brand new presidency.
Spain will maintain the EU council presidency till 31 December, which then might be adopted by Belgium.
