Molts d’anys and Happy New Year. Or should that be Happy Blue Year?

Tonight and tomorrow night, the Castell de Bellver and the Cort (townhall building) in Palma de Mallorca will be illuminated in blue as a mark to welcome the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, which begins today. Similar light effects can be seen on other public buildings throughout Spain, from A Coruña to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. You may have seen the Ayuntamiento de Madrid building illuminated in the European blue, last night during the New Year’s Eve television programme.

Spain is the first country to hold the EU reins under the new Lisbon treaty, a set of institutional reforms designed to strengthen the bloc’s decision-making procedures. One might expect, though, that the Lisbon treaty will amount to a downgrade of the role of Spain’s rotating presidency. We’ll just have to wait and see how the Spanish government will deal with this new distinction and its added responsibility. In any case, Mallorca is said to be earmarked to hold a number of European summit gatherings over the next six months, amongst them a meeting of the European defense ministers in Palma in February.

The photo was taken from the Internet. My thanks go to diariodemallorca.es and to Lorenzo, the photographer.

Muchas gracias.