One day after the anticipated call for elections scheduled for July 23 in Spain, the Secretary of State of the European Union, Pascual Navarro, meeting in Brussels, has informed the community institutions that the advance will not affect the presidency rotation of the Council of the EU and that the country will begin on July 1. Likewise, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, also wanted to reassure the rest of the partners in this regard at a meeting in the Belgian capital.
"Spain is a country that has the habit and experience of assuming its institutional responsibilities at the national and European level, the presidency is going to remain as such and with all its activities," said Minister Planas upon arrival at the meeting in Brussels with his counterparts.
The EU Secretary of State, Pascual Navarro, has also conveyed the same message to the community institutions that have contacted the government with the idea that it will not affect the elections for the presidency and that "the institutional normality of the EU”. For Planas, "the taboo of not holding elections was broken a long time ago," and he recalled the case of France, which held presidential elections last year.
The minister also added that it is "the fifth time" that Spain has assumed the six-monthly presidency of the Council of the EU since it became a member state and that it is "aware of the role it plays" and that "there will be no problem" when it comes to to carry out all the subjects during the semester and that the calendar of activities is going to be maintained as planned.
"We reassure those who want, in some way, to see it negatively, because we are going to ensure our institutional and political responsibilities as the presidency of the European Union," he added.
It is not the first time that elections have been held or there have been different leaders in the midst of a rotating presidency. Poland also held elections in 2011 and Belgium in 2010. In 2009, in the Czech Republic, the prime minister was changed after a vote of no confidence, although no elections were held. Much earlier, in 1996, Italy also had to vote to elect a new prime minister and had, in the same presidency, two different leaders.
