MADRID/BRUSSELS (EJP)---Spain took over the European Union rotating six-month presidency from Sweden on Friday, just a month after the Lisbon Treaty, which reformed the EU institutions, took effect.
Under this treaty, EU summits will be chaired by Herman Van Rompuy, the former Belgian Prime Minister who was named last month full-time President of the European Council along with the new EU foreign policy chief, Britain's Catherine Ashton.
But Spain, whose Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero promised to work to end Europe’s economic crisis, will steer other top meetings on the economy, environment and energy, and host summits with non-EU countries, like Israel.
Zapatero said Spain's main goal as EU president is "to fight for economic recovery, for recovery from the crisis, and make Europe an economy that is more and more productive, more and more innovative and more and more sustainable."
