While the Spanish will want to show that they can successfully operate the presidency within the boundaries of the new Lisbon rules and regulations, including having close and positive working relations with Van Rompuy and Ashton, at the same time, they will still want to gain some political kudos from their time in the EU spotlight and promote their own interests. How well this will all work remains to be seen, and there is already criticism being voiced from some circles that the continuation of the six-month rotating presidency allows too much scope for overlap. Only time will tell if this is a correct assessment, and Spain will be eager to prove that the two are complementary rather than competitive.So what will Spain’s priorities be? Well it will come as no surprise that Spain’s neighborhood of North Africa as well as its former empire of South America will figure quite highly on their list of priorities and a considerable number of summits with Spanish-speaking nations will take place in the next six months. This is in complete contrast to the outgoing Swedish presidency, which barely gave these regions a second thought. Spain will host the first-ever EU-Morocco Summit as well as organizing a meeting with all the countries of Latin America. The Spanish presidency also offers an opportunity to rekindle the fires of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for the Mediterranean. The 42-nation initiative, which was launched with a big bang in 2008 during the French presidency, has made virtually no progress since and has almost totally disappeared from the EU’s radar. Renewed troubles in the Middle East and a lack of interest by the past two presidencies, Czech Republic and Sweden, which paid far greater interest to relations with Eastern Europe (including launching the Eastern Partnership, which aims to increase political and economic ties with the countries to the East), partially account for this. It will be interesting to see whether the Spanish are able in inject new zest into the initiative.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will also get less time in the EU spotlight than his predecessors as under the new rules Van Rompuy will chair the summits of heads of state and government while Lady Ashton will chair meetings of foreign ministers. It may sometimes be difficult for Zapatero to have to step back from the limelight and accept the new diplomatic protocol, for example, at the EU-US summit on May 25, when he would probably love to be the one shaking President Barack Obama’s hand first.
Another priority will be to get EU member states to reach an agreement on a replacement for the Lisbon Strategy -- an initiative that was meant to make the EU the world’s most competitive economy by 2010. Having failed miserably to achieve this, some tough decisions need to be taken on how to get the EU economy back on track. With unemployment at almost 10 percent of the EU labor force and set to increase in the coming months and several EU member states continuing to linger in deep economic recession, urgent action at both EU and national level is required. EU leaders will attempt to thrash out a new economic strategy for the next decade on March 25.
In relation to Turkey, Spain may find that its hands are rather tied when it comes to making real progress in the membership negotiations even though Madrid is a friend and supporter of Ankara’s EU aspirations. Because of the lingering Cyprus issue, Turkey’s talks with the EU risk grinding to a standstill if no solution is found to the Cyprus problem in the next few months. The increased number of meetings planned between the two Cypriot leaders over the coming period offers a glimmer of hope, but success is still far from guaranteed. Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias is at odds with his coalition partners while Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat does not want to seen as making too many concessions. Hot issues such as property and security are still far from agreed on. The fallout from a failure to reach an agreement will have far-reaching consequences for all parties concerned, and while not wanting to be seen as being an interfering “external force,” at the very least Zapatero, along with Ashton, should give increasing encouragement to the two Cypriot leaders to make a breakthrough very soon. Otherwise Spain might find itself at the helm of the most serious EU-Turkey crisis to date, which would be the last thing they would wish for their presidency.
