Fatma Yilmaz Elmas USAK Center for EU Studies printable version send your friend

Saturday, 17 July 2010

The Term Presidency of the EU changed hands between Spain and Belgium on 1st of July. Spain caused disappointment because she could not accomplish the objectives that Spain asserted such as struggle with economic crisis and negotiations between the EU and Turkey during her presidency. Belgium, which went to early elections, made a doubtful start with regard to the effective management of the term presidency due to the uncertainty on political stability. Hungary, third partner of the rotating presidency brought by the Lisbon Treaty, will have the first experience of the term presidency in a period when the EU will struggle to be a "union" This will hold expectations at low level for the first half of 2011 as well.

Spain’s Turn: High Expectations-Low Performance

The trio of Spain, Belgium and Hungary which have taken the 18-month rotating presidency after Lisbon had adopted a common work program drawing up several priorities. In terms of the program which drew strategic and operational framework, Spain undertaking the first term of trio identified her priorities under four key areas. Accordingly, implementation of Lisbon Treaty, economic recovery, boosting the Union’s international influence and policies towards the EU citizens were the priorities of Zapatero’s government which held the presidency. However, to what extent and how effective these priorities were turned into practice is a matter of discussion. This is mostly because Spain which had held the presidency four times experienced the most difficult one among them due to the ongoing economic crisis. Economic recession of Spain, Europe’s fifth-largest economy, and the country’s constantly increasing unemployment rate put Zapatero’s government in difficulty both in domestic and international arena. While taking over the presidency, Zapatero’s government thought that they could direct the public attention to the foreign policy. However, they were wrong in their assessment. Contrarily, news about the bad economic situation in Spain and daily news with regard to failure of Zapatero’s government about the crisis management seriously overshadowed the credibility of the Spanish presidency.

The most concrete step with regard to the economic recovery, taken during the Spanish Presidency, was "Europe 2020" that deals with sustainable development and employment strategy. Accordingly, European leaders agreed on the amounts that will be used to develop social economy including poverty and education. However, it will be wrong to carry high expectations in advance on the full realization of Europe 2020 which also sets out a series of objectives about the employment, research and climate changes. If remembered, the "Lisbon Strategy" which came into force in 2000 and aimed at making the EU the most competitive and information-based economy by the year 2010 could not be successful. In contrast, instead of any recovery of the economy, the EU, hit by economic crisis very harsh, in the aimed year of 2010 is in a serious crisis which caused the member states be jealous of sharing welfare. In such environment, the EU has to cope with the problems which raised the question whether EU is dispersing or not?

Another issue which held high expectations during the Spanish presidency was the accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU. Spain, seemed to be one of the biggest advocators of Turkey’s EU membership, started the term presidency with the promise on opening four more negotiation chapters. In this regard, prior objective of Spain was to open the chapters of ’energy’ and ’culture and education’ which were blocked by Cyprus and ’food safety and plant health’ on which Turkey has to make law arrangements and ’public administration’. However, neither Cyprus took step back nor Spain in the name of the EU President was able to be a "driving force" on the opening of new chapters. Naturally as a result, the only success of Spain was to proudly open a new chapter on food safety and plant health at the last minute. Therefore, one more EU term-presidency was ended up with the rhetoric that focal point of Turkey-EU negotiations should not be the ultimate result of the reform process but the reform process itself.

Political Uncertainty in New Term-President Belgium

Spain said her farewell after a difficult period due to the economic crisis. Belgium took over her presidency from Spain with a government crisis. Belgium where a new government has not been founded yet had started to work beforehand in order to prevent side-effects of domestic problems which could damage the Belgian presidency. In Belgium where new governments seem not to be founded until the end of September, officials assured that Belgium would prepare and repercussions of the domestic problems would not be seen during the presidency. The transition government under the leadership of former Belgian Prime Minister undertaking the term-presidency assured the same goal during a press release in which priorities and programs were introduced in order to eliminate the public concern.
Belgium which tries to disperse black clouds on her presidency by a rhetoric that "do not judge us before our Presidency judge us after our Presidency"(1) shaped her objectives similar to those of Spain around economic coordination, strengthening the management and reform of fiscal markets. Along with the economic recovery, Belgium is expected to work in order to realize the common program of trio. In this sense, priorities of the program are the development of social programs for youth, struggle with poverty and gender discrimination, climate change and forming a global European policy on migration and refugees.

Enlargement and relations with Turkey are signified on the point that reform processes of candidate countries should be encouraged. Belgium asserted that she will conduct the current negotiations according to the candidate countries’ own progress pace and merit. From Belgian point of view, it is possible to draw the classical conclusion that Belgium will try to end the negotiations with Croatia and if Turkey meets the criteria Belgium will open new chapters. Even Belgian officials highlight that they will try to keep the pace of negotiations. Saying "we will re-balance our relations with Turkey"(2) in one of his speeches, EU Permanent Representative of Belgium Jean de Ruyt explained Belgium’s vision on EU-Turkey relations that negotiation process marks time. Seemingly, according to the EU, "rebalancing" means drawing Turkey’s attention to the EU once again instead of the East and getting relations back to track. Otherwise, both the vision and the capacity of Belgium seem to be far from bringing new dimensions to the relations.

Generally...

The EU which ended one presidency with a big defeat on restructuring economy, future vision drawn by the Treaty of Lisbon and the acceleration of the relationship between Turkey and the EU started a new presidency which was dominated by a political uncertainty. Moreover, it is obvious that rotating term presidency, foreseen as a coordinated work by the Lisbon, does not bring any innovative structure. Furthermore, it was expected that the newly-established permanent President of the European Council and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy would provide a vision to the Union for a fruitful future and this vision would guide the term-presidency to show an effective performance. However, the Union faced with a multi-headed awkward structure instead. In terms of Turkey-EU relations, rather than the expected progress during the Spanish Presidency, the relations were conducted in an infertile or unproductive ground.

Actually, this unproductive relationship results from the political and institutional environment of the EU. Not being able to manage to draw an effective political and institutional path itself, the EU naturally is not also able to assure its own unity which is necessary to struggle with the economic crisis. Member states which are not able to solve the economic crisis with the spirit of the "union" accuse the political and institutional structure of the Union. In doing so, by moving alone, they are far from bringing new visions to the structure of the EU. Consequently, in such an atmosphere, the EU term presidency in which high priorities are generally listed turn to an institutional duty in which expectations and performances keep low.


Fatma Yilmaz-Elmas
USAK Center for EU Studies


* This article was firstly published at the Monthly Bulletin titled "Gundem Avrupa" (Agenda: Europe), a publication of USAK Center for EU Studies, in July.

*Translated by: Murat Can Akel

[1] "AB’de Her Baskanlik Doneminde Ayni Vaat! Belcika: Turkiye ile Yeni Fasil Acabiliriz" Euractiv, 28.06.2010.
[2] "AB, Turkiye Dogu’ya Kaymasin Diye Baslik Acmaya Calisacak", Euractiv, 16.06.2010.