The first day of 2011 will change the lines of accountability for many European Union activities, ranging from economic policy to foreign policy, from the regulation of financial services to the distribution of development aid.

The most immediate change is that Estonia gains full membership of the club of eurozone countries and begins using the euro, the European single currency. The national currency will be withdrawn from circulation over the course of the next two weeks.

On 1 January, Hungary takes over from Belgium the presidency, or chairmanship. of the Council of Ministers, the meetings of ministers from the EU’s 27 member states. Until the end of June it will be the prerogative of Hungarian ministers and their officials to convene Council meetings and set their agenda.

The Council presidency’s remit runs across all policy areas except foreign affairs. Hungary will not though chair meetings of the government leaders, the European Council; 1 January marks the first anniversary of Herman Van Rompuy taking up office as the first permanent president of the European Council – an innovation brought in by the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon.

This 1 January will see another Lisbon treaty innovation take (belated) effect. The EU’s diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, begins operations on this day. About 1,100 staff from the European Commission, who have been working in the departments for external relations and development, and 400 officials from the secretariat of the Council of Ministers, will be transferred en masse into the EEAS, to be joined by officials recruited from the diplomatic services of the member states.

Although the creation of the EEAS has been a year in the making, the preparations for the 1 January launch fell behind schedule and the last steps were rushed. It is unlikely therefore that the impact of the EEAS, which is to work for Catherine Ashton, the EU’s high representative for foreign and security policy, will be felt immediately.

Another EU creation that takes legal effect on 1 January is the European Systemic Risk Board, whose duty is to survey the European banking and financial services industry and to prevent a repetition of the credit-crunch and banking failures of 2008.

The ESRB, which was set up by EU legislation completed in November 2010, will be attached to the European Central Bank. The ESRB will hold its first meeting on 20 January.

In addition, the EU has strengthened the powers of European regulators of financial services for the banking, securities and insurance sectors. The European Banking Authority (EBA) will be based in London, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris, and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) in Frankfurt.

The new bodies will have powers to impose binding technical standards on member states and overrule national regulators if an EU law is breached. They will have a combined staff of 150, rising to 300 after four years and a budget of €40 million.

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The chairmen and secretaries-general of the three new authorities have not yet been selected; the boards of each authority will choose from shortlists approved by the European Commission that are to be submitted to Parliament by the end of January. In the meantime, the existing chairmen and secretaries-general of the three committees that the authorities replace will continue in post in the new bodies until April.

The new year also sees two cities take on the mantle of European Capital of Culture. There is heavy concentration on the continent’s north-east corner: in 2011, the European capitals of culture are Turku, one of Finland’s oldest cities, and Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.