Sarkozy’s turn

Undoubtedly Nicolas Sarkozy was hoping to reach the top of the European Union at a far more favourable juncture in its history: to give the right forward momentum to the Twenty-Seven; to re-launch his own internal image; and to earn for himself a place among the great world leaders by reinforcing the international stature of the Elysée at a time when his most feared “colleagues”, Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown, are having to cope with mounting domestic problems.Instead, the six months French Presidency of the EU Council (1st July – 31 December 2008) begins at a time fraught with tension. The delicate economic situation of the Old Continent can escape no one. To this is added the unforeseen obstacles to the process of ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon created by its rejection by Irish voters and acknowledged by the summit of 19-20 June. European leaders, meeting in Brussels, were able to do no more than take note of this difficulty, inviting the countries that have still to ratify the Treaty to take steps to do so at the earliest opportunity and deferring any decision on the matter to the summit of 15 October, under the chairmanship of Sarkozy. Probably the French President had thought to arrive at this point with the ratification process all but wrapped up, and thus be in a position to dedicate himself in all peace of mind to the definition of the main officeholders of the EU, which interests France no less than the other member states.If the Treaty was supposed to have come into force, as planned, on 1st January 2009, steps would have had to be taken at this time to choose the next ‘long term’ President of the European Council, who under the Lisbon Treaty would serve a term of two and a half years, and the High Commissioner for External Relations, who would also be invested with the post of Vice-President of the Commission. The select list of new appointments to the top positions in the EU would also have included the President of the next European Parliament, who would remain in office for half the legislature, and his successor; and the future President of the Commission, given that Barroso’s term of office is due to expire in November 2009.With the Treaty still far from reaching a solution, the question of these appointments seems also to have been moved to the backburner. At the same time, the institutional question, which has once again risen to the top of the agenda, is stripping of appeal a project that was close to Sarkozy’s heart and in which he had personally invested a great deal: namely the revival of the Barcelona Process. The super summit scheduled to be held in Paris on 13 July to give a fresh kick start to this initiative, re-baptized Union for the Mediterranean, now seems an appointment of minor interest both to the EU countries and to their Mediterranean partners.Not least, the impasse created by the rejection of the Treaty by the Irish (exactly as the French and Dutch had torpedoed the draft Constitution three years ago) risks distracting the Twenty-Seven from “the Europe of results”: in other words, from the pursuit of those benefits in the economic, social and geopolitical field, or those benefits in terms of security and consumer protection, that are calculated to bring citizens closer to the “common home” than the EU treaties and the European ideals.Yet the last summit demonstrated that, now that the shadow overhanging the Lisbon Treaty has been lengthened by the Irish rejection, the EU was not even able to draft a common response to the escalation of the price of foodstuffs and petrol. Never mind what would happen if Europe had to take important decisions on energy, climate change, immigration, competition of Chinese products, Kosovo and so on!Sarkozy will need all his savoir faire and political skills (which he certainly does not lack) to convince Europe to move forward together. But if he is to demonstrate himself as a leader of European stature, the French President will have to put on one side a little of his nationalism and become a champion of Europe as a community of nations. It’s a fine challenge, for him and for the European Union.