Belgium took over EU Council Presidency
On 1 July 2010 Belgium has taken over the rotating presidency of the European Union from Spain.
The caretaker government under the Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme will thus now chair all Council meetings apart from the Council of Foreign Ministers and meetings of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper).
Due to the far-reaching powers of the Belgian regions and linguistic communities, the Council of Ministers will be partly chaired representatives from the regional level. While the federal Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne is generally responsible for the Competitiveness Council, the Walloon Minister Jean-Claude Marcourt is responsible for industrial policy and the Ministers of the Brussels region, Benoît Cerexhe, is responsible for the research part of the Council.
Webpage of Belgian Council Presidency http://www.eutrio.be
Presidency webpage of our Belgian partner federation VBO-FEB http://eupresidency.vbo-feb.be/