Tribune | 11/07/2008 

Uniquement en anglais.

This is not the start that a country starting its presidency of the European Union would dream of. Quite the opposite. It has been more than one year since the French election in May 2007. Now President Nicolas Sarkozy's government prepares itself for its six-month mission of chairing the EU Council of Ministers. It is impatient to demonstrate that the motto the President used on the day of its elections "France is back in Europe and Europe is back in France" is a reality. It was not, however, really anticipating such a blow as the Irish "no" to the Lisbon Treaty has been for the EU as a whole. The main priority for France is to make sure that the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty is indeed pursued as was decided at the last European Council in June. The position of the Czech President and more recently the Polish one will certainly complicate its task. At the same time, the fact that UK has proceeded with ratification despite the Irish "no" is a sign that there is a political will in Europe to avoid a new negotiation, for which all energies have been exhausted after the transformation of the Constitution into the Lisbon Treaty. Does the Irish "no", however, totally impede the French presidency from acting with efficiency on its four priorities: climate, immigration, agriculture and defence? Probably not, to the extent that, in any case, since the Lisbon Treaty was to come into force only in 2009, France was planning to go ahead in these areas without the Lisbon Treaty. Moreover, governments are probably keen to show that the EU can provide concrete results for its citizens. But the context of a new European crisis does not help in creating a positive climate of negotiation in the Council, which would allow, for example, the recourse to qualified majority voting. Within this difficult context, this article suggests three angles through which the French presidency can be analysed: is the rotating six-month presidency of the EU Council still relevant? What is the nature of the priorities of the French presidency and their potential for success? And what is the state of the relationship between France and its European partners and what impact will it have on the presidency?

• Rapport Haug, Lamassoure, Verhofstadt : Europe for Growth : Towards a radical change in financing the EU
• "Un grand commis européen", Le Monde du 24 décembre 2010
• Des réformes institutionnelles à la politisation - Ou comment l'Union européenne du Traité de Lisbonne peut intéresser ses citoyens
• Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul sur France 24: UE-Diplomatie: une voix européenne?
• Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul : "La revendication régionale a toujours été considérée comme relevant des Etats" - Le Soir, 17 juin 2010