A bad start for the French EU presidency
In July, France is going to take over the presidency of the European Union for 6 months (this short rotation of presidency is a factor of inefficiency and the Lisbon Treaty contains provisions to reform this). However, this presidency is looking bad even before it started.
It is no secret that France is heavily criticised for not complying with EU law - late transposition of EC Directives notably relating to market liberalisation, failure to comply with tight budget rules, etc. Certain initiative like the Mediteranean Union project of the dreadful Mr Guaino without involving the EU was perceived quite negatively by our European partners, in particular Germany.
However, France is most importantly isolated on central issues for the EU, namely free trade and competition. In the recent years, demagogic French politicians (Sarkozy being one of them) have promoted so called 'economic patriotism' and declared the industrial production of products like yoghurts to be of national strategic interest. During the presidential campaign, EU competition policy has been heavily criticised by the new President and on Free Trade/subsidies, he has also proved to be a fierce defender of the ol CAP. Last night, when asked who should be blamed for the Irish "No", Mr Sarkozy suggested the name of the EU Trade Commissionner, Peter Mandelson.
During the campaign he has blamed the Euro and the European Central Bank for certain of the French economic problems forgetting that other countries in the Euro Zone are doing far better than France in economic terms.
This attitude of the French president is totally unacceptable. Behind the Europhile speech and the very "blind" description of the situation made by our remarkable French media, France appears to be more of a source of problems to the EU development than a source of solutions.
This is the reason why, I do not expect anything good coming out of the French presidency of the EU.
It is no secret that France is heavily criticised for not complying with EU law - late transposition of EC Directives notably relating to market liberalisation, failure to comply with tight budget rules, etc. Certain initiative like the Mediteranean Union project of the dreadful Mr Guaino without involving the EU was perceived quite negatively by our European partners, in particular Germany.
However, France is most importantly isolated on central issues for the EU, namely free trade and competition. In the recent years, demagogic French politicians (Sarkozy being one of them) have promoted so called 'economic patriotism' and declared the industrial production of products like yoghurts to be of national strategic interest. During the presidential campaign, EU competition policy has been heavily criticised by the new President and on Free Trade/subsidies, he has also proved to be a fierce defender of the ol CAP. Last night, when asked who should be blamed for the Irish "No", Mr Sarkozy suggested the name of the EU Trade Commissionner, Peter Mandelson.
During the campaign he has blamed the Euro and the European Central Bank for certain of the French economic problems forgetting that other countries in the Euro Zone are doing far better than France in economic terms.
This attitude of the French president is totally unacceptable. Behind the Europhile speech and the very "blind" description of the situation made by our remarkable French media, France appears to be more of a source of problems to the EU development than a source of solutions.
This is the reason why, I do not expect anything good coming out of the French presidency of the EU.