EUROPEAN DIARY:IT HAS finally arrived. Today France takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, a position that enables it to set the Union's priorities, steer through a raft of new legislation and become a principal broker in international negotiations in many areas.
For energetic French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the EU presidency, which is shared in equal rotation by all EU states, will boost his public image and provide a platform for him to deliver on his election campaign goal: to place France back at the heart of Europe.
"Ambition" has become the watchword for the French presidency, which marked the transfer of the post from tiny Slovenia last night by bathing the Eiffel Tower in blue light and projecting yellow stars on to it - in imitation of the EU flag. The light show will continue for the next two months, by which time many EU diplomats hope Sarkozy's efforts to place France back in Europe hasn't alienated half of Europe. "The big problem for French presidencies of the EU in the past is that they have found it difficult to separate the European interest from the national interest," says Hugo Brady, analyst with the Centre for European Reform think-tank.
The most famous example of this was at the Nice summit in December 2000, when former French president Jacques Chirac earned the nickname "bulldozer" for insisting that France retain the same voting weight as Germany in a reform of the Council of Ministers, despite its lower population. The summit stretched for a record four days as recriminations over relative voting weights broke into the open between delegations.
"The best EU presidencies tend not to lead from the front but rather act behind the scenes as good conciliators. Small member states tend to be better at this by skilfully anticipating problems and solving them before they break into the open," says Brady, noting that there has been little attempt to tone down ambitions for the next six months.
French diplomats have cited immigration, defence, agriculture, climate change and Sarkozy's brainchild for a new "Mediterranean union" as key priorities for the presidency.
These areas are also key national priorities for Sarkozy's administration, which has so far promised a lot to the electorate without delivering concrete results.
There are signs that Paris is willing to compromise on some of these dossiers to get results over the next six months. Early drafts of a proposed EU "immigration pact" have been watered down to reflect opposition by Spain and Sweden to integration contracts for immigrants and tougher harmonised rules on claiming asylum.
Plans for Sarkozy's Mediterranean union have also been scaled back following concerns expressed by Berlin, which feared that any new body created within the existing union would divert EU cash and influence from northern to southern Europe.
A summit to launch the watered-down strategy, which will now be called the "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean", could prove to be the first tricky challenge for Sarkozy's EU presidency.
The guest list for the event, on the eve of Bastille Day, has still to be decided amid strong criticism from some African and Arab states. Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy has described the plan as an "insult" to Arabs, while Algerian prime minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem has criticised it for being "vague".
One of the presidency's biggest challenges will be devising a response to the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
As one of the key architects of the treaty, Sarkozy has already insisted that the treaty is non-negotiable and is pushing other EU states to complete their ratification processes before the end of the year. He will arrive in Ireland on July 11th to find out for himself what went wrong.
"The big prize would be for him to solve the Irish problem," says Daniel Gros, analyst with the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies. "But time-wise he can't really do that and there is a danger that if he becomes hyperactive on the issue it could backfire and cause problems for ratification in the Czech Republic or Poland."
Franco-German pressure on Ireland following the No vote prompted fears across Europe that a two-speed EU may develop in the future. Small EU states will be watching Sarkozy's handling of the presidency to see if Paris is capable of being an honest broker, rather than advancing its own interests.
For some Brussels-based hacks, the biggest fear prompted by a French presidency lies in a chronic lack of French-to-English interpretation services (a service normally provided for all EU meetings). A short language test conducted by French embassy staff over the phone resulted in several colleagues being scratched from the list of invited guests for the first day of the traditional unveiling of the presidency, to be held in Paris.
"It's the first example of a two-speed Europe developing," remarked one colleague, who speaks English, German, Czech and Slovak, but not French.
At least the food will be good, remarked another.