Practical Aspects of the EU Presidencies: The Latvian Presidency and Its Digital Priority

Andzans, Maris. Practical Aspects of the EU Presidencies: The Latvian Presidency and Its Digital Priority. Riga: Latvian Institute of International Affairs, 2015.

Paper outlines some of the factors determining the power and influence of any presidency of the EU Council, with the primary aim of assisting the employees of future presidencies, in particular the chairs of the legislative Council working parties. It is based on observations and lessons learned by the author in preparing and conducting the Latvian Presidency of the Council. During the Latvian Presidency, the author chaired the Council Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society, covering telecommunications and internet governance issues (the most noticeable file was the so-called “Telecommunications Single Market” regulation proposal [European Commission 2013], covering the abolishment of retail mobile roaming surcharges and the establishment of open internet rules in the EU). Compared to other analyses of presidencies of the Council, this paper puts more emphasis on the practical aspects.