On January 1, Belgium will come to hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. For the following six months, it will hold a position with which the country is already familiar. As one of the six founding countries which kicked the European project off in the 1950s, Belgium has held the reins of the rotating presidency numerous times, most recently in 2010.
Nonetheless, the European project in the first half of 2024 will find itself in a uniquely challenging position, and Belgium’s experience in implementing a presidential programme is no guarantee of success. To discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the incoming Belgian Presidency, TEPSA is collaborating with the Egmont Institute to co-organise the Belgian Pre-Presidency Conference (PPC): “Towards the Next Strategic Agenda”.
The Belgian PPC took place on November 23 and 24 at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. At this crucial moment for the EU, the conference brought together leading academics, policymakers, researchers, and civil society representatives to reflect on the next EU Strategic Agenda for 2024-2029.
The first semester of 2024 will be a crucial moment for the future of Europe. 2024 brings with it European elections and the adoption of a new EU Strategic Agenda, so a number of key issues will need to be addressed in the first half of the year.
Our conference thus focused its work on previewing the next Strategic Agenda, opening with a panel discussion on the Belgian Presidency and the Strategic Agenda. In a parallel session we welcomed the Horizon Europe project “RECLAIM” for a discussion on how to build democratic resilience in Europe, continuing TEPSA’s work to further discussion in the area across a series of recent conferences. Further topics of discussion included: building the EU’s security and defence capabilities, the EU’s economic security and sustainability, and many more. In addition to these themes, the conference’s overall focus on previewing the next EU Strategic Agenda means much of the discussion focused on the future of key EU policies. In particular, breakout sessions on the second day featured perspectives on the future of EU enlargement policy, and the future of the EU’s approach to migration.
On the occasion of the Belgian Pre-Presidency Conference, TEPSA also presented recommendations to the incoming Presidency. These recommendations form part of a long history of interaction between TEPSA and the Council Presidencies, starting with the first Pre-Presidency Conference in 1974. They will be circulated to key policy-makers in the Belgian Ministries, and discussed in depth at the PPC. The recommendations from members of the TEPSA network to the incoming Belgian Presidency are available to read here.
