Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Magyar Posta is issuing a postage stamp to mark the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Between 1 January and 30 June 2011 Hungary holds the office of the presidency of the Council of the European Union. Hungary’s task will be to shape the issues on the agenda of the European Union to match the interests of the 27 Member States. The presidency also has unique and ex-traordinary importance from several other aspects. It is a widely held view among the Member States that the first rotating presidency is a kind of bap-tism of fire.

It is only when a member state man-ages this complicated decision-making mechanism that it truly comes to understand it. The presidency involves political, diplomatic, professional and communication duties, and the results achieved in these affect the perception of the given member state. These six months will make Hungary more visible as a member state both within and outside the European Union, and will raise consciousness of the advantages and opportunities of the Euro-pean Union in domestic public opinion.

The Treaty of Lisbon introduced the trio presi-dency on 1 January 2010. Based on this, the rotat-ing presidencies are arranged into groups of three to ensure coherent, long-term cooperation within this framework. Hungary formed the first joint trio with Spain and Belgium, which performed the du-ties of the rotating presidency in the first and sec-ond semesters of 2010.

The political agenda of the Hungarian presidency seeks to build on the human factor and concen-trates on four main areas: growth and employment to protect the European social model; a stronger Europe; a citizen friendly Europe, and expansion and neighbourhood policy. (Source: mfa.gov.hu