Sarkozy reluctant to cede European stage to “passive” Czechs
It’s five weeks since the Czech Republic took over the EU’s revolving presidency, and five weeks since France relinquished it. But have they relinquished it? President Nicolas Sarkozy continues to stride manfully across the European stage, while the newspapers of Paris issue dark murmurings of French unhappiness with Czech “passivity”. So who is in charge of Europe?
Several weeks ago, Mr Topolánek said he’d invited Barack Obama to visit Prague before the NATO summit in Strasbourg in early April. On Saturday, Le Monde reported that President Sarkozy had called Barack Obama and asked him to stop off in Paris…before the NATO summit in April. On Monday, Lidové Noviny newspaper, citing “unnamed diplomatic sources”, said Obama was not coming to Prague.
Is this a coincidence? Lukáš Macek is the director of the European programme at the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Science, Science Po:
“Seriously, I don’t know, and it’s too difficult now to analyse it. The real question is the reason Obama doesn’t want to come to Prague. Is it because he just doesn’t think the European Union is important? Is it just because he doesn’t want to meet President Klaus because Mr Klaus thinks and says things Obama dislikes? Or is it just because people from Paris are telling him, you know, serious things take place in Paris, Berlin or London, whereas Prague – forget about it. And it’s very difficult to know the percentage of each of these explanations.”
And it’s not just who gets to shake the hand of Obama first. Le Monde also reported this week that President Sarkozy – alarmed by Czech “passivity” in the face of the global financial crisis – wants to organise a special summit of Eurozone members to discuss the crisis in February, long before an EU Council meeting in March. So is France deliberately trying to undermine the Czechs? Well, it’s not quite as simple as that, says Lukáš Macek.
“In France, and especially President Sarkozy and his closest advisors, they’re trying – and it’s a long-term vision of the European Union which is typical of Sarkozy – to undermine not specifically the Czech Presidency, but to get people to accept the idea of a kind of “directoire des grands”, a leading group of big European powers within the European Union. And there’s a will to undermine the role of the small states. The problem now that we have is that the Czech Presidency actually has a problem to mobilize the traditional allies of a small presidency, which naturally are other small states, Germany, and the European Commission.”
One meeting the French will allow the Czechs to keep for themselves is an EU – China summit slated for May. A previous meeting in Paris was cancelled after Mr Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will now, it seems, lead a Chinese delegation to Prague. Watch this space.
