Spain assumes EU presidency at tricky stage

SPAIN’S taking over the six-month presidency of the EU will be formally celebrated in Madrid’s Teatro Real, the royal opera house, later this week.

The country’s royal couple will sit on gilt chairs in the massive box framed by red velvet directly opposite the stage for the gala concert.

Under cascading chandeliers, a new chapter of the EU will begin as the Spanish introduce the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty, a task that will not be easy as many of the details are far from complete.

The rotating presidency of the EU will continue to be hosted for a six-month period by a member state, despite the appointment of a permanent EU president of the European Council and a foreign minister.

The president, former Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy, will chair the four or more summits of EU leaders in Brussels and coordinate the agendas.

Foreign minister Catherine Ashton will chair the monthly foreign ministers meetings and preside over the enlarged foreign policy, with offices for the first time in both the council and the commission.

Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, has acknowledged the pitfalls the new arrangement offers by promising that Spain’s role will be one of coordination rather than competition.

In an effort to coordinate the work, Spain’s prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the new president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, have established a working group. The need for this nerve centre indicates the half baked state of the details surrounding the EU’s new structures, which are still being worked out.

However, such apparent muddling along frequently belies the serious battle taking place just below the surface in the EU, where colleagues surreptitiously manoeuvre to ensure that the process they wish is put in place. This makes it much easier to deliver the kind of substance they want in future.

While Mr Van Rompuy and Mr Zapatero work to ensure that they are not overlapping, the detail will be largely overseen by a French man, Pierre de Boissieu who was deputy secretary general of the Council for the past 10 years. The new configuration sees him assuming the top job, both in fact and in name. The head of his office is a Briton and de Boissieu’s successor next year will be a German – which gives an idea of just how many influences will be at work on defining the new structures.

In the meantime Spain has said it has a particular interest in the EU membership applications of Turkey and Iceland; strengthening links with Cuba; pushing for a Middle East peace process and creation of a Palestinian state, on strengthening the economic recovery of the EU to make it capable of competing in a globalised world.

Ashton can be expected to share Britain’s wish to widen the EU with the inclusion of Turkey. But with Iceland refusing to refund the British and Dutch for their bank losses this issue could be a bone of contention, as could the issue of a Palestinian state and Cuba.