Evaluation of the German Presidency

The German Presidency was preoccupied by two matters. First of all it overlapped with the preparation of presidental election in France. Since the driving force of innovation in the European Union is mainly the French-German bloc, the possibilities of creative changes was very limited. At the same time it was necessary to face up to the emotive position of Poland in quite a number of questions, and whereas this position of Warsaw often made it impossible to adopt creative decisions. These positions concerned both, the agreement of a strategical partnership between the EU and Russia and also the character of discussions about the new European (constitutional) Treaty. The geopolitical preconceptions of some politicians in Warsaw make both the relationships with Berlin and the relationships with Mosow complicated which obstructs the EU. All of it at the time of enormous politicisation of the energy problem and in the time of non-fulfilment of the main intentions of the more to the timetable of the Lisbon Strategy.Though during the German Presidency they managed to spell out the problems in a range of issues, for example in the summit with Russia in Samara, the pragmatic character of the Berlin´s approach laid the foundations for better times. Also the sustained effort to replace the myriad of agreements by a new treaty, that would bring legal personality for the European Union, brings some benefit.That is a pity, that the German Presidency is not starting now, in a less complicated situation. None the less I think, that the German Presidency was, within the context, successful.