If you are interested in politics in general or in the EU more particularly, then you certainly know that a different member state presides over the Council of the European Union every six months. Since July 1, 2013, Lithuania has been in charge of the Council’s affairs. Staying loyal to AUBG’s commitment to providing students with direct access to real-world politics, the department of Politics and European studies invited Darius Gaidys, Lithuanian Ambassador to Bulgaria, to the Skaptopara Campus to deliver a lecture on the topic of “The current Lithuanian rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.”
The event took place in the America for Bulgaria Student Center on November 12.Mr. Gaidys was quick to warn the audience from the very beginning that the presidency of the Council of the European Union is “an excellent thing to do but not to speak about” because of the myriad of technicalities involved. The first part of the meeting took the format of a traditional lecture in which Mr. Gaidys shed light on the political and economic context within which the Lithuanian mission has been working.
The Lithuanian presidency has faced diverse challenges among which steering the EU at a time when the EU budget for the next seven years has to be negotiated, along with elections for the European Parliament approaching on the horizon. In addition, the revelations about the United States spying on US and European citizens led to the establishment of EU-USA ad hoc working groups to explore data protection issues. Mr. Gaidys further noted that the bloody conflicts in Egypt and Syria have also exerted huge influence on the operations of the Lithuanian presidency simply because the country does not have an extensive experience in dealing with Middle East politics and culture.
Mr. Gaidys then proceeded to outline the major achievements of the Lithuanian presidency so far and the areas in which the subsequent delegations will need to continue working on. EU policies can be put into the following three categories: Credible Europe, Growing Europe, and Open Europe.The EU currently faces the challenge of proposing and implementing complex measures to restore confidence in the EU economy, and working toward greater citizen awareness over the values of the European family.
With relation to Growing Europe, the EU should strive to boost employment, especially among the European youth, and competitiveness. Under the Lithuanian presidency, the EU adopted the Declaration on European Alliance for Apprenticeships. In addition, the Open Europe policies have to provide for the enlargement and greater visibility of the EU alongside better security. Mr. Gaidys pointed out that the Lithuanian presidency of the Council of the European Union has so far seen the accession of Croatia to the European family and the reopening of negotiations with Turkey.
“The Eastern Partnership is of vital importance to us as well”, Mr. Gaidys stressed. Difficult as it is due to the Russian influence in the region, the EU should cooperate closely with Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the second part of the meeting, students and professors had the opportunity to ask the Lithuanian Ambassador to Bulgaria any kind of questions. They learnt that the ambassador of a country that presides over the Council of the European Union has not only more work to do on a day-to-day basis, but also a greater responsibility since he represents, directly or indirectly, both his or her home country and the EU.
Personally, Mr. Gaidys has given a lot of interviews for various media, participated in numerous conferences, and held talks with some of the chief political figures in Bulgaria, including Boyko Borisov, Sergey Stanishev, and Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski. Mr. Gaidys displayed his good sense of humor by concluding that “it is much easier for a country to have a presidency of the Council in the second half of the year” because of the summer and Christmas holidays when the workload goes down significantly.
