As Belgium assumed the presidency of the EU on Thursday, Brussels' ambassador in Tokyo said that contributing to COP10 and the Asia Europe Meeting will be the EU's main agenda items concerning Japan.
Belgium took over the presidency of the Council of the EU, which rotates among EU member states every six months, from Spain. The role involves organizing and chairing all meetings of the council, and Belgian government ministers will chair the meetings in their respective fields.
Ambassador Johan Maricou said at a Friday news conference at the EU delegation office in Tokyo that first up on the new presidency's agenda in Japan is the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which will be held in Nagoya in October. "We'll be a chair at COP10. . . . We're expecting more than 300 delegates from the EU," he said.