{"id":289308,"date":"2024-01-03T16:18:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T15:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/?p=289308"},"modified":"2024-01-09T18:03:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T17:03:02","slug":"with-belgian-presidency-first-eu-enlargement-in-history-amid-crisis-and-second-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/01\/03\/with-belgian-presidency-first-eu-enlargement-in-history-amid-crisis-and-second-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"With Belgian presidency, first EU enlargement in history (amid crisis and second thoughts)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013\u00a0Belgium as a synonym\u00a0of enlargement, not such a long shot. Certainly an improper connection\u2014even considering that the kingdom, at its\u00a0thirteenth presidency of the EU Council<\/a>, is among the founding states of the European Union\u2014but that in the history of the integration project and its historical stages finds a moment in which\u00a0the expansion of the common project coincides with the management of the work entrusted to the Brussels government. It is January 1, 1973, and Belgium assumes the presidency of the EU Council for the sixth time, coinciding with the accession of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom to the then European Economic Community (EEC)<\/strong>,\u00a0 which\u00a0grows from six to nine member states.<\/p>\n

The one of 1973 is the first of seven (so far) moments in which\u00a0the number of EU member states increased. It is thus a historical and symbolic moment\u00a0of enlargement that has also been followed by the transformation of the integration project. The new\u00a0Belgian presidency just starting<\/a>\u2014it will\u00a0last until June 30, 2024\u2014brings with it a curiosity that is something more\u00a0than a mere peculiarity<\/strong>: when it comes to the European Union and rotating presidencies, it is with a Belgian presidency that the first enlargement of the European family becomes effective. The<\/strong> curiosity, if anything, is due to the government crisis that swept Belgium and its presidency<\/strong>. When Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joined the EEC, the head of the Belgian executive was Gaston Eyskens, but from January 26, 1973, the country, engulfed in the meantime by internal affairs, was led by Edmond Leburton. The Eyskens government resigned in the wake of the “Fourons crisis<\/strong>“,\u00a0French-speaking towns transformed into Flemish municipalities\u00a0from an administrative point of view having decided their transfer from the Walloon region of Li\u00e8ge to the Flemish region of Limburg\u2014an all-Belgian logic causing\u00a0the crisis at the time of the first EU enlargement. Another story of History, also made up of counter-enlargements.<\/p>\n

One part of Denmark, Greenland, backed out and exited the European Economic Community in 1983, just ten years after entry. Then was the turn of the United Kingdom, exiting in 2020 following the 2016 referendum that saw the 12-star membership being rejected. By contrast, Ireland’s path was different, Euro-convinced, and the only one among these three countries involved in the first enlargement and subsequent “shrinkage” to have adopted the single currency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 1, 1973, Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom become full members of the EEC. The Belgian government welcomes them, before the crisis at the end of the month. Then part of Denmark (Greenland) and the UK will leave the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":289314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[25746,25757,25972],"class_list":["post-289308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-president-in-officeofthecouncil","tag-enlargement"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289308"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289671,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289308\/revisions\/289671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}