Who is the EU’s leader ?

On the 20th of January, Zapatero appeared before the European Parliament to outline the agenda of the Spanish presidency. The agenda is based on four main aims : the efficient implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon, which was approved last year ; the coordination of economic efforts between member states in order to help the EU move past the financial crisis ; the promotion of citizen’s rights in the Union, with a strong emphasis on equality between men and women ; and lastly, to ensure that the EU becomes a global player in the world.

Spain has taken charge of the EU’s rotating presidency for six months

Spanish Presidency’s priorities : implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, coordination to fight the economic crisis, citizen’s rights and foreign affairs.

Photo : Flickr, European Parliament/Pietro Naj-Oleari

Some of these aims could prove to be problematic. Specifically, Spain’s focus in the EU’s role in foreign relations could undermine the new power structure in Brussels. Spain has prepared a series of international meetings between the EU and countries in the Mediterranean and Central and Latin America, as well as bilateral meetings with Russia, the United States and China amongst others. While post-Lisbon Europe is trying to present Ashton as the head of the EU’s foreign service and Van Rompuy as the representative of the EU in the international scene, it is the rotating presidency that has independently created these multilateral meetings. Europe is presenting three leaders to the rest of the world. Take the bilateral meeting with the United States on 25th May for example. It has been decided that Van Rompuy will chair the meeting, but who will shake the American representative’s hand first ? It might seem trivial, but protocol like this can determine the power structure of the meeting, and protocol is still amongst the details being discussed, debated and fought over between the different EU leaders.

A working group to coordinate

In order to avoid problems like these, Zapatero and Van Rompuy have decided to establish a working group composed of their representatives, together with members of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to work together during the six months. This group is supposed to provide a channel of communication between the different leaders in a bid to further co-operation and create a more efficient presidency for both leaders, as they strive to work together to achieve their objectives. Perhaps it will take further ‘working groups’ between Van Rompuy and the next rotating presidencies of Belgium and Hungary to prevent further problems, and to ensure that the rotating presidencies refrain from preparing international meetings and instead pass this job on to the new international representatives of the EU : Van Rompuy and Ashton.

In practice : clashing agendas

Dual Presidency

Although Zapatero and Van Rompuy have stated their will to coordinate, in practice they have clashing agendas. It could be worse, however, if the rotating presidency was less collaborative.

Photo : European Commission

Looking at the European economy, the Spanish agenda is also clashing with that of Van Rompuy. While they are both stressing the importance of economic recovery, Spain has gone as far as proposing new measures to ensure member states keep to their economic targets by imposing sanctions to those who do not. Even though it had to backpedal on this proposal later on, Spain’s attempt to lead the EU’s economic affairs clashed with Van Rompuy’s plans and that of the other member states, who back co-operation between the states, not sanctions.

So far, Spain’s pro-European Prime Minister has been co-operative with his counterpart in the European Council and has publicly stated his will to give Van Rompuy his own political space. However, if tensions rise between the member states and Van Rompuy’s policies, as could be the case with Van Rompuy’s desire to restrict Council meetings to heads of states only, this co-operation could be harder to come by. One can also consider how other rotating presidencies after Spain could be led by eurosceptic governments, making co-operation with the pro-European Van Rompuy even more problematic. There is also the potential for conflict if, in the future, there is an even larger gap between the different agendas of the presidents. This could be the case in the current Spanish Presidency whose aforementioned broad agenda clashes with the economic-based one in Brussels. So far, the path shared by the Spanish government and Van Rompuy has been smooth in preparing the six month presidency, but some cracks are starting to show between the two. The current dual presidency model could prove problematic in the future.

The Many Powers of Europe

If one can see potential conflict between these two presidencies, then what about the other power players in the EU ? Barroso’s second Commission has just been approved, and Cathy Ashton has begun preparing the new European External Action Service. Both will fight for their agendas, which might invariably clash with each other at some point. In this multi-powered European Union, is there a role for a rotating member state presidency that lasts 6 months ?

From the Treaty of Lisbon’s objective of creating a single internationally visible head of an efficient European Union, we now have a dual presidency with some overlapping competencies and the possibility of conflict in the future. Even though the head of the government holding the rotating presidency in the EU has promised to take a backseat in favour of Van Rompuy, the existence of this dual presidency style could be a source of problems for the EU in the future.

Headline photo : European Commission