SUPPLEMENT / Europe/documents n° 2595

A Presidency of the Council of the EU which will have to juggle strategic agenda and current challenges

(Dossier by Camille-Cerise Gessant)

INTRODUCTION

On 1 January, the Netherlands, a founding country of the Union, took up the six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU for the twelfth time. It is the first time it will have done so under the Lisbon Treaty. The Netherlands is the first country of the new trio of Presidencies, along with Slovakia and Malta.

Although it has a clear agenda, which takes up the priorities of the strategic agenda adopted by the European Council of June 2014,...