President of the Government attends European Council and Summit of EU-27 in Brussels

Prior to the ordinary meeting of the European Council on Thursday, 14 December, the award ceremony will take place of the financial provision of the Princess of Asturias Prize for Concord 2017, granted to the EU (50,000 euros), which will be allocated to the victims of the fires that broke out in Spain and Portugal. This event will be attended by the President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy; the Prime Minister of the Republic of Portugal, António Costa; the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, and the President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker.

The working session of the European Council is due to begin at 3 pm with the traditional meeting with the President of the European Parliament.

The work session will focus on the issues of security and defence. This will also be attended by the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, and will be used to analyse cooperation between the European Union and NATO, considered to be one of the main pillars of European security and defence policy.

The activation of Permanent Structured Cooperation-PESCO will also be welcomed, following the Decision adopted by the Foreign Affairs Council on 11 December.

This session will also address the Social Dimension, Education and Culture as a continuation of the Social Summit for Fair Jobs and Growth, held on 17 November in Gothenburg, organised by the Swedish Government and the European Commission.

Around 6:45 pm, a brief event will be held to outline the activation of Permanent Structured Cooperation-PESCO.

Dinner will be given over to a thematic debate on the external and internal dimensions of migratory policy.

On Friday, 15 December, the Euro-27 Summit will be held, which will seek to make progress on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). On this occasion, the summit will not only be attended by the Heads of State and Government of the 19 members of the Eurozone, but also by the rest of the EU countries (except the United Kingdom).

In this context, the leaders may present their vision of the more advanced aspects of the reform of the EMU, particularly issues related to Banking Union. Following the implementation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism, the work on establishing the European Deposit Insurance Scheme now requires a renewed drive, and the Single Resolution Fund needs to be strengthened through the creation of a common support fund.

Furthermore, and along the same line of extending the EMU, the European Commission presented a raft of different proposals on 6 December. The leaders will have the chance at the Euro Summit to exchange points of view on a preliminary basis on the ideas raised.
Following breakfast, the European Council will be held in its Article 50 format at which the latest progress made on Brexit negotiations will be addressed. Following the agreement reached on 8 December on the joint report on the first phase of negotiations, a decision is expected to be taken as to whether sufficient progress has been made to proceed to the commencement of the second phase.

If the European Council considers that sufficient progress has indeed been made, drafting of the Withdrawal Agreement based on the Joint Declaration should commence. Negotiations should be completed by autumn 2018 to enable the Withdrawal Agreement to be concluded in time by the Council after having obtained the consent of the European Parliament and for approval by the United Kingdom in accordance with its own procedures prior to 29 March, 2019.

Non official translation