2.8.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 208/42

(1)

By Decision 2009/908/EU (2) the Council established the order in which the office of President of the Council was to be held for the Member States of the European Union as from 1 January 2007 until 30 June 2020, and it set out therein the division of that order of Presidencies into groups of three Member States.

(2)

The European Union was enlarged on 1 July 2013 to include Croatia as a new Member State.

(3)

Although no notification has as yet been received under Article 50 TEU from its government, a Member State has made it known publicly that it will withdraw from the Union. The order of presidencies of the Council should be amended to take account of that circumstance, without prejudice to the rights and obligations of that Member State.

(4)

The Council should establish the order in which the office of President of the Council shall be held for the near future. That order should be determined in accordance with the criteria laid down in the Treaties and in Decision 2009/881/EU of the European Council. The Decision 2009/908/EU should be amended accordingly,

(1)

Article 1 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 1

The order in which the Member States shall hold the Presidency of the Council as from 1 July 2017 and until 31 December 2030, as well as the division of this order of Presidencies into groups of three Member States is set out in Annex I to this Decision.’;

(2)

Article 3 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 3

The Council shall, before 31 December 2029, decide the order in which the Member States will hold the Presidency of the Council as from 1 January 2031’;

(3)

the text of Annex I to Council Decision 2009/908/EU is replaced by the text set out in the Annex to this Decision.