‘A more protective Europe’ What to expect from the French EU Presidency in 2008?
Under the motto ‘a more protective Europe’, france took over the rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2008 with a keen eye on energy, climate change, defence and immigration policy. The idea is to defend Europe’s social and economic model from the pressures of globalisation. The French Presidency occurs just three years after French voters rejected Europe’s cherished Constitutional project, throwing the Eu into a long-lasting political crisis. But on the very day his election as French President Nicholas Sarkozy promised he would put his country ‘back in Europe’, notably by helping to resolve the bloc’s institutional impasse with the adoption of the new ‘Lisbon Treaty’ and by better involving citizens in Eu debates. According to a survey carried out by IFOP (Institut Français d’Opinion Publique) 61% of French belive that after the failure of the constitutional referendum in May 2005 the French Presidency of the Eu will be a good opportunity for France to increase its influence in Europe. France prepared to focus on pressing external challenges such as climate change, energy security, Russia policy and EU enlargement; now she will have to turn inward once again to put time and energy into fixing the EU’s creaking institutions. The Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has put off the reform plans 2009 onwards as the 860,000 ‘no’ voters in Ireland have blocked the path of a half-billion Europeans.
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