Although the political weight of the rotating presidency of the Council falls on the ministers and the Presidency of the Government, the bulk of the work will be carried out in Brussels by the diplomats and officials of the Permanent Representation of Spain, the country’s largest embassy in the world. During this semester, and with close to 200 dossiers on the table, dozens of ministerial meetings will be held, more than 100 trilogues, more than 100 ordinary meetings of ambassadors (Coreper) and there will be thousands of meetings in the more than 150 working groups that exist.
For the performance of the tasks, three figures will have a key role that are only known in Brussels, and even there not enough:: the Antici (David Navarro), Mertens (victoria ortega) and the Nicolaidis (Laura Martinez Bocos), who are the main advisers of the three ambassadors of each country in the UE. and responsible for the most technical part, the day to day of the files and the fights without microphones.
Its informal groups are the ones that prepare each meeting of ambassadors, paving the way. Nothing happens to the ministers without prior work from the ambassadors, but nothing reaches them without prior screening by their right hands, who are the ones who have detailed knowledge of each of the dossiers. The Ancients They also have a very unique role reserved in the European Councils, since many of the sessions of the leaders are behind closed doors (and even without motives) and the minutes are reflected in a series of informal notes that one person takes and are later distributed among the diplomats.