Implementing Lisbon: the EU Presidency’s other (rotating) half

Antonio Missiroli and Janis A. Emmanouilidis

EPC Policy Brief

Brussels 12/2009

The Lisbon Treaty, in force since 1 December, still left many grey areas to be clarified, one of the more tricky ones being the function of the six-monthly rotating EU Presidency in the next institutional architecture, say Antonio Missiroli and Janis Emmanouilidis in this Policy Brief. It is clear that EU Member States still expect to play a major role in the European Council and even in foreign policy, so the authors outline a number of roles the (residual but resilient) rotating Presidency could play both internally and externally without undermining the new bodies and figures created by Lisbon.

The EPC Policy Brief was published on 10 December 2009 and can also be found on the EPC website. See here.