Vol. 563 No. 5
172 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the system for arranging the order of member countries in the European Union is likely to change with the admission of new member countries, where such an order is currently based on the alphabetical listing of countries in the national language of each country, with the exception of Ireland whose order is determined by its name in English. [8490/03]
On 16 April next the ten acceding states will sign the Treaty of Accession in Athens. From 17 April these ten states will attend meetings of the European Council, the Council of Ministers and its preparatory meetings. They will attend such meetings as accession countries until 30 April 2004. From 1 May 2004 they are set to become member states of the European Union.
From 17 April 2003 the seating order at meetings of the Council will be adjusted to include the ten acceding states. The seats of the member states will continue to be arranged in the current order of Presidency rotation which reflects a number of factors including alphabetical order and which has been agreed until 2006. The seats of the acceding states will be included in alphabetical order and alternating with those of the existing member states as described.
The location of the acceding states in the seating order will begin after the member state assuming the next Presidency of the European Union. The practical effect of this will be that the Czech Republic will be seated immediately to the right of Ireland which assumes the Presidency on 1 January 2004. The Council has agreed to decide on the question of the order of the presidencies for 2007 and onwards as soon as possible and at the latest one year after accession of the new member states.
It should be noted that the European convention is currently discussing how an enlarging Union should organise itself to ensure continuing effectiveness. One of the most important issues to which the convention is giving consideration is the future of the Presidency function. Ireland continues to believe that the key advantages of the rotating Presidency should be preserved. We are open to discussion as to the means of achieving this objective. We have been particularly interested in detailed further work on the team Presidency concept.
