EU

Czech Republic takes over presidency, euro ten years old

Article published on the 2009-01-01 Latest update 2009-01-02 08:29 TU

Czechs celebrate New Year Day's at the former Stalin monument in Prague
(Photo: Reuters)

The Czech Republic has taken over the rotating presidency of the European Union from France. Despite its Eurosceptic president, the country will hold the EU leadership for six months. Slovakia becomes the latest country to adopt the euro, as the single currency celebrates its tenth birthday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy assured Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek his "total support" in a telephone call on Wednesday, ahead of France handing over the presidency to the Czech Republic on Thursday.

Tensions between the two countries came under strain earlier in 2008 when French government aides suggested Sarkozy could retain some influence after France's six-month term expired.

"In a period of crisis that the world has not seen for some time, I tried to change Europe," Sarkozy said in his annual New Year's Eve message, claiming that the last six months showed the need for a "strong, independent" Europe.

The Czech Republic is the only EU country to have had no vote in any of its institutions on the Lisbon Treaty, which was rejected by Ireland in 2008. Parliament is set to vote on the question on 3 February.

While Topolanek is pro-European, the country's President Vaclav Klaus describes himself as a "dissident" on the EU. He is expected to express his opposition to the treaty when he speaks to parliament on 19 February.

The Czech Republic, which was in the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, has to handle troubled relations with Russia and intends to build closer ties with eastern European countries not yet in the EU.

It also hopes to host the first summit with Barack Obama after he takes over his functions as US President.

Slovakia, which separated from the Czechoslovakia in 1993, became the 16th eurozone member on Thursday on the tenth anniversary of the founding of the single currency.

Looking back on the French presidency, analyst Peter Ludlow describes it as "an exciting affair".

But he believes that it "diminished or undermined the status and role and functioning of other institutions".

"The most obvious victim …, a voluntary one, is President Barroso," he told RFI, saying that the Commission chief "has been seriously undermined in terms of his authority both inside the Commission and beyond by the way that he has been treated by the French presidency".

Sweden takes over the rotating EU presidency on 30 June.