Brussels, 20/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 20 July, several European sources said that a political agreement at the level of member state ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) could soon be reached in order to bring forward the rotating presidencies of the Council of the EU from 1 July 2017. The UK, which is to negotiate its exit from the EU, has renounced its EU Council presidency which was scheduled for the second half of 2017.
The 28 member state ambassadors discussed this issue on Wednesday 20 July and a fairly broad consensus was found among them to bring the six-monthly presidencies forward, a source stated. According to another source, no formal agreement was reached on Wednesday, however, and work still needed to be done to convince all the delegations.
The Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU should launch a procedure of written confirmation and if there are no objections from any member state, Estonia should take up its six-monthly presidency between July and December 2017 - earlier than initially planned. As a result, the six-monthly presidencies of the Council that were initially planned after the UK's presidency (Bulgaria, Austria, Romania and Finland) would all be brought forward by six months under this agreement.
On Tuesday evening, British Prime Minister Theresa May informed European Council President Donald Tusk that the UK was renouncing its stint at the rotating presidency of the Council. According to French news agency AFP, May told Tusk that the UK (where a majority of citizens have voted to leave the EU) would be “very busy with the negotiations aiming to leave the EU”.
A spokesperson for the British government said that May wanted to prepare the negotiations on the UK's exit from the EU carefully before triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty. The spokesperson continued that Tusk had told May that he would ensure the process went smoothly.
Tusk's press department has confirmed this phone conversation. Last weekend Belgium said it was interested in the possibility of taking on the Council presidency instead of the UK, but Belgium has not made a formal proposal on this. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)