The pride of the small and medium-sized countries. What happened during the six months of the Irish Presidency of the Council will go down in history: countries of central and eastern Europe, artificially separated for over half a century, joining the EU; European elections in the enlarged Union; the approval of a Union Constitution in the form of a Treaty replacing all the preceding Treaties; the appointment of the President of the new European Commission, a perilous exercise due to changes made to the Commission under the Treaty of Nice.
Obviously, the Council didn't do all that on its own. But it made a huge contribution, playing its part impeccably and with infectious enthusiasm. It showed once again that the role of the small and medium-sized countries can be crucial at the head of the institutions of the Union. We already knew this of Luxembourg and Belgium (and a few others), and now we know it of Ireland. And now it's the turn of the Netherlands.
The risk of being a break between dossiers. The Netherlands are not inheriting an easy six months, especially on the institutional front. The Council will not have a fully operational Parliament alongside it straight away. For the first three months at least, the new EP will be settling itself in, choosing its President, bureau, and committees, appointing the first rapporteurs, getting organised, not just practically, but also politically (a certain amount of upheaval is expected in some of the political groupings). The Commission chaired by Mr Prodi will be in place for another four months, and is working at full speed at the moment, but it would be unreasonable for it to take on too many initiatives in the last weeks of its existence (except, obviously, the report on Turkey). And when it takes up its duties early in November, the new Commission will first have to forge a doctrine on many current dossiers. Off the top of my head: the "Bolkestein directive" on services; negotiations with Mercosur and the possible limits of liberalisation with agricultural imports; the "Doha cycle" of world trade negotiations as they relate to "international governance"; adjustments in the application of the Stability Pact... There's no point expecting miracles of the Barroso Commission. In the field of trade in particular, where the Commission negotiates on behalf of the Union, neither Pascal Lamy nor Franz Fischler will be there any more to put forward positions (in the form of a mandate to the Commission), or to discuss them with the third countries. There is a risk not of a blockage, but of a break in international negotiations.
A few important meetings. In practice, the Dutch Presidency will only be able to develop normal legislative work in the latter part of its term, because the Parliament, the co-legislator, will not get into its stride immediately, and it will only be able to count on a fully operational Commission for a few months. These are objectives difficulties, but they don't mean that the next Commission will be condemned to a sort of limbo. On the contrary, many important meetings are already scheduled; but they're not the deadlines for the completion of any great projects (as was the case for the previous Presidency), but rather the continuation of work in progress. In particular:
Accessions. Accession negotiations, which have been concluded with Bulgaria, are soon to be so with Romania, and those with Croatia are due to start.
Financial perspectives. The difficult negotiations between the 25 on the 2007-2013 perspectives will no longer be based on the Commission's well-known (and controversial) "communication", but on the legislative proposals expected this month. Work is to "take full account of the different positions of the Member States", said the European Council of 18 June, which won't help the President much in its complicated task (see yesterday's bulletin, page 10).
Area of liberty, security and justice. The new "Tampere programme" will be on the agenda of the European Council of 5 November. The Dutch Presidency will focus on an element which has been scandalously neglected to date: clamping down on sources of funding for terrorism, which has been able to abuse the legal financial system all too easily. But there are other things too.
Lisbon strategy. The application and relaunch of this strategy are a permanent job for all Presidencies. Among other reforms, the Dutch government will make a point of reducing the legislative and administrative burdens on business. Permanent representative Tom de Bruijn spoke of 15 billion in needless costs, which can be "collected", because it's there. This is an instructive example of good governance, Dutch-style.
(F.R.)