Presidency of the Council of the European Union
On 1 July 2020, Germany took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) from Croatia. It will preside over the first 6 months of the new 18-month Trio Presidency together with Portugal and Slovenia.
The Trio Presidency has agreed an 18-month joint programme setting broad policy objectives. It aims to make Europe more resilient, fair and sustainable following the pandemic, and to ensure its rapid economic and social reconstruction through 6 key priorities:
- sustaining a fair and social Europe while promoting Europe’s interests and values worldwide;
- securing transparent and European-wide digital transformation;
- finding comprehensive, permanent and crisis-proof solutions for migration;
- promoting European technological and industrial sovereignty and competitiveness;
- investing in innovative, sustainable and smart economic transformation to ensure competitiveness, and building a climate-neutral and green Europe through the EU Green Deal; and
- promoting European values at the international level.
In health, the Trio Presidency aims to build more resilient infrastructures, taking full account of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It intends to enhance the EU crisis response, strengthen the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and other capacities, address challenges related to the stockpiling of essential health materials, and strengthen the capacities of cross-European structures such as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Germany has also laid out detailed priorities and planned initiatives for its Presidency in a 6-month programme. The German Presidency comes at a time of key challenges for the EU due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its health, economic and social consequences. The German Presidency intends to meet this challenge in a forward-looking manner together with all EU Member States to help Europe recover under the motto “Together for Europe’s recovery”. It will focus on 6 guiding principles:
- recovery from the coronavirus crisis in the long term, including economic recovery;
- a stronger and more innovative Europe;
- a fair Europe;
- a sustainable Europe;
- a Europe of security and common values; and
- a strong Europe in the world.
The German Presidency has set 3 overarching health policy goals:
- restore the manufacture of essential medical products and devices and build a European stockpile;
- drive the creation of a European health data space; and
- strengthen European public health organizations such as the ECDC and the European Medicines Agency.
