A waning rotating presidency: The difficult role of Spain

Carme Colomina, Research Fellow CIDOB

Deniz Devrim, Associate Researcher CIDOB

Laia Mestres, Researcher CIDOB

Eduard Soler i Lecha, Research Fellow CIDOB.

 

The best conclusion of any assessment of the external action of the last Spanish presidency of the European Union in 2010 is that no assessment is possible. In other words, the governmental army that was preparing an EU international relations agenda for the half-yearly presidency along with the academic analysis evaluating its progress each six months has become obsolete. The foreign policy of the European Union is no longer constructed on a six-monthly basis. It makes no sense any more to assess it at this tempo. The assessment should be longer-term and probably in keeping with the five-year legislatures of the Commission and the Parliament. Moreover, the Lisbon Treaty has not resolved the matter of a single external representation. The European Union remains immersed in internal debate on the new hierarchy of powers and, in this context, the new half-yearly presidencies, obliged to “take the back seat”, in the words of a Belgian diplomat, are bereft of the visibility and political leadership they formerly enjoyed. (...)

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