Doing its best. Will the Council of the European Union have a real presidency for the few weeks separating us from the Swedish Presidency? Is the transitional Czech government, whose prime minister is a senior official in the National Statistics Office, capable of preparing and carrying through events such as the June European Council and the preceding summits with Russia, Japan and South Korea, in addition to the Council sessions on the calendar? Prague's response is “yes we can” (see EUROPE yesterday) but there are still some concerns. The president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said that he is confident that the new government will do its “utmost” to ensure the continuity of a “an efficient and results-orientated” Council, a comment, nonetheless, which appears to have been inspired by the traditional watchword addressed to the boy scouts.
Without claiming to assess the figures I only know from a distance, I still have the impression created by the previous Czech government: at an individual level, the officials chairing the different Council groupings were generally high-calibre, and in a few cases very high, but there were also obstacles and problems created by their domestic political situation. This double-edged observation is expected to remain valid.
Domestic complications. Mirek Topolánek and a number of ministers negotiated effectively in their official presidential positions and managed to overcome differences and achieve compromises on some controversial dossiers, even if it has not always been easy to distinguish the presidency from the Commission and Council secretariat. Mr Topolánek's position was not an easy one given that his country's president was overtly hostile to the Lisbon Treaty and current European integration. His situation was compounded by a strong Eurosceptic current developing inside his own party and government. He did as well as he could but after the toppling of his government by the national parliament he declared: “It is obvious that with the end of this government, it is also the Czech Presidency of the EU that comes to an end, in a certain way. We now have less of an ability to influence and achieve compromise”. Alexandra Vondra, the vice prime minister delegated to European affairs, proved to be an endearing and rather mysterious character. Jean-Pierre Jouyet, who carried out the same job during the French Presidency wrote in his essay on the Sarkozy EU presidency, after meeting Vondra at several meetings during the Troika: “During the months that went by, I got to know the enigmatic Alexander Vondra, always listening and with a perpetual half-smile on his face”. The affair involving the geographical sculptural map of Europe representing member states in a symbolic and ironic way was all about Vondra, and the artist David Cerny is currently dismantling his sculpture in protest against the new government that he describes as a “pirate crew”. At least one of its new ministers knows European affairs well, the minister for foreign affairs, Jan Kohout, who has been a permanent representative of his country to the EU and a member of the Convention which drew up the draft European constitution - which produced the Lisbon Treaty. The other ministers are still not very well known in European circles. Fortunately, the Czech permanent representation, for the main part, remains unchanged.
Vaclav Klaus' Eurosceptic ambitions. Controversy and uncertainty persist in connection with the figure presiding over the next round of summits mentioned above. It is understood that the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, will chair the summits with Russia, Japan and Korea. It is obvious that there is going to be a problem with the summit with Russia because this summit will be required to make a declaration on issues that will largely determine future Euro-Russian relations and subsequent European energy policy.
The most controversial presidency, however, will be that of the European Council on 18-19 June, which is expected to: a) designate the future president of the European Commission; b) define and approve the guarantees made to Ireland aimed at convincing the Irish people to approve the Lisbon Treaty. Vaclav Klaus intends to preside over this summit and consequently lead the discussions for which the final result could, if successful, compel his country to subsequently sign a treaty he abhors. We should, nonetheless, carefully avoid describing his position as “Kafkaesque”, the reference to his gifted fellow citizen would be too banal and imprecise because one should recognise that the situation (our publication examined this subject yesterday and the day before yesterday) is quite complicated. Let's therefore hope, as does Mr Barroso, that the Czech Presidency will indeed be “efficient and results-orientated”. Nothing, however, should be taken for granted.
(F.R./transl.rh)