On 1 July 2023, Spain will take over for the fifth time the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Treaty of Lisbon (2007) established that every 6 months, the Presidency of the Council rotates among different EU member states. The member states work together in groups of three, in so-called “trios”. These trios set long-term goals and draw up a common agenda to identify the major issues that will be addressed by the Council over the following 18-month period. The next trio will be formed by Spain, Belgium and Hungary and will last until the end of 2024.
The Presidency is in charge of coming up with proposals and organising meetings as well as seeking consensus to defend the general interests of citizens and to ensure the institutional representation of all member states of the EU. Spain will continue working on topics such as the green transition, the digital transformation and a wide range of social issues. For this reason, all Spanish ministries have been preparing for the Presidency for the past two years.
Interpreters working at the EU institutions have also been preparing linguistically and finding out about topics relevant to the Spanish Presidency as the number of meetings held in Spanish will significantly increase during the next six months. If you also want to practise your interpreting skills in Spanish, we encourage you to pay a visit to the Spanish section of the Speech Repository.