These are two terms which are often incorrectly used
The “Troïka” represents the European Union in external relations
that fall within the scope of the common foreign and security policy
(CFSP).Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Troïka has brought together:
- the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Member State holding the Presidency of the
Council of the European Union; - the Secretary-General/High Representative for the common foreign and security
policy; - the European Commissioner in charge of external relations and European
neighbourhood policy.
Trio presidencies
The presidency in some regards is now being executed in a shared manner in
order to cope with the rather short six month term of the presidency. Three
successive presidents forming a “triple-shared presidency” work
together over a 1.5 year period to accomplish a common agenda by the current
president simply continuing the work of the previous “lead-president”
after the end of his/her term. It should be noted that the legal structure has
not officially been modified; rather, it is a de-facto method of operation.
However, the Final Act of the IGC in the Treaty of Lisbon would formalise this
procedure. This process also allows new member states to hold the presidency
sooner, and at the same time the triplets are arranged so that, in each of
them, there are both new and old member states, with the assumption that the
old member states will pass their experience to the co-presidency new-members.
