Premier presenteert programma voor het Portugese voorzitterschap (en)

Ricardo Oliveira/GPM

The Lisbon Government plans on convening the IGC, during the informal summit of the 27 Heads of Diplomacy, which will take place this month in Viana do Castelo.

The President of the European Parliament and the leaders of the different political groups in the Strasbourg Assembly have already listened to the José Sócrates's exposition on the Portuguese Presidency of the EU on 29th June, in Lisbon.

On that occasion, Hans Gert Pöttering stated that the EP "strongly supports" the programme, priorities and calendar presented by Portugal, aiming at the approval of the new European Treaty in October.

Tratado, Brasil, Africa e Estratégia de Lisboa". Foi deste modo claro e sucinto que o Primeiro Ministro, José Sócrates, definiu as prioridades da Presidência Portuguesa da Uniao Europeia para os próximos seis meses.

"Treaty, Brazil, Africa and Lisbon Strategy". It was in this clear and concise manner that the Prime Minister José Sócrates defined the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union for the next 6 months.

José Sócrates spoke at the joint press conference, held this morning together with the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering, at the end of the meeting of the Portuguese Government with the leaders of the political groups of the Strasbourg Assembly.

During the meeting, the President of the European Parliament thanked José Sócrates for the position taken at the last European Council, in which a higher number of European Parliament's representatives was defended - 3 instead of 2 - for the intergovernmental conference (IGC) on the final agreement on the future Treaty of the European Union.

This position will allow the Parliament to designate a representative of the EP's Liberal Group for that IGC. The two representatives of the European Parliament are usually designated by the Socialist and Christian Democratic groups.

The Prime Minister José Sócrates also addressed the issue brought to light today concerning alleged statements from the Head of the Warsaw Government, according to which Poland might reopen the institutional package set in the mandate agreed upon in the last European Council.

Faced with this question, José Sócrates, according to the news agency Lusa, considered that "a misunderstanding" had occurred and stated his knowledge on what had been decided at the last summit in Brussels. "We left (the Brussels Summit) with a clear and precise mandate. I therefore believe that this misunderstanding will be quickly clarified".

Click here  and see the photo in high resolution (in jpg, 352 KB)