Spain hopes to lay foundations for 'more solid' EU - Feature

Madrid - When Spain takes over the rotating European Union presidency on January 1, it will have to deal with a new EU. After the entry into force of the EU's Lisbon Treaty on December 1, "Europe will have a more united and solid voice on the international scene," a source of the Spanish EU secretary of state's office told the German Press Agency dpa.

The EU now has a permanent council president, Herman Van Rompuy, and de facto foreign minister, Catherine Ashton. The Lisbon Treaty should also make decision making simpler and swifter.

Spain's handling of its EU presidency will shape "many of the future aspects of the union," the daily El Pais said in an editorial, urging Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government to live up to that responsibility.

The new power structure will be created "gradually," with the foundations of the EU diplomatic corps possibly in place by April, the government source said.

Spain is not, however, expecting that the EU reform will allow it to push through more measures than were adopted under previous EU presidencies.

"Spain will seek a maximum consensus and the widest possible support" for its proposals, the source said.

Spain will begin laying the foundations of a stronger EU foreign policy under Ashton. "The Spanish EU presidency will be a very Euro- American and Mediterranean one," the source said.

The 14 summits scheduled by the Spanish EU presidency include two European-American ones that will be held in Spain.

Those are a summit between the EU and the United States, with Barack Obama's presidency expected to help "revitalize" the transatlantic dialogue, and a summit between the EU and Latin America.

Spain's joining the EU in 1986 contributed to the union expanding its relations with former Spanish colonies in Latin America. Madrid now wants to give those relations a new boost, according to the source at the EU secretary of state's office.

Planned measures include seeking association agreements with the Mercosur economic community, Central America and the Andean Community, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.

The most controversial point could be Spain's plans of upgrading the EU's relations with Cuba.

Madrid wants to modify the EU's 1996 common position on Cuba, which links relations to progress on democracy and human rights on the Caribbean island.

"It is not fair for Cuba to be subjected to a constant scrutiny," when the EU does not do that with other countries "which do not have ideal regimes," such as Iran or North Korea, the government source explained.

Other foreign policy highlights of the Spanish EU presidency will be a relaunch of the Union for the Mediterranean, a French-sponsored project which stalled over violence in the Middle East, and a summit with Russia focusing on guaranteeing Eastern Europe's energy supplies.

On the economic front, Spain faces the huge challenge of Europe's economic crisis.

"We want to reassess the EU's economic Lisbon Strategy, which has not yielded the results the EU hoped for," the government source said.

Spain will seek a "new productive model" focused on training, innovation and sustainable energies, with the aim that "Europe will never again experience such a big economic crisis," the source explained.

Spain's attempts to revive the economy will be accompanied by a social focus on "vulnerable people" most at risk of economic exclusion, Labor Minister Celestino Corbacho said.

Suffering from the violence of the Basque separatist group ETA, Spain will also seek a "European security strategy" against terrorism, with concrete policies and common goals, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.

Security policy will also include fighting organized crime and illegal immigration. However, Spain does not see immigration only as a security issue. Instead, it will also seek common policies on issues such as hiring migrant workers.

Another pillar of the Spanish EU presidency will be a "citizens' Europe" project, which will emphasize measures against domestic violence, the government source said.

"We want to make it possible to detain suspects immediately in any EU country," the source said. Spain is also planning to create a European Observatory of Domestic Violence.

About 50 women were killed by their husbands or partners in Spain in 2009.