Michal Kaminski's priorities for the Spanish Presidency

Brussels, 15th January 2010

The eventful Swedish Presidency looks set to be followed by another lively six months, with many challenges and crises for the Spanish to overcome.

Already, much of the commentary has focused on how the rotating Presidency's senior figures will interact with the holders of the new posts created by the Lisbon Treaty. Of course, the next few weeks will set an important direction for the future institutional functioning of the EU post-Lisbon. Commissioner Ashton and Herman Van Rompuy are servants of the Council of Ministers, whilst Mr Zapatero is one if its 27 masters and I hope that we continue to see a clear role for the rotating Presidency.

However, ultimately the citizens of Europe will judge the Spanish Presidency on its economic record and therefore Mr Zapatero must not allow himself to become sidetracked by institutional wrangling.

Spain itself needs the Presidency to succeed. With unemployment at four million - up 25 percent in 2009 - its focus must be on assisting with the creation of wealth and jobs.

Prime Minister Zapatero and Herman Van Rompuy have already put the economy firmly on the agenda for the next six months. I do not believe we can question their commitment; however, I do have concerns about the direction being proposed. In particular, Mr Zapatero's suggestion for EU binding targets on the economy, with possible sanctions for those member states that do not meet them, is an unnecessary and dangerous transfer of powers to the EU. European cooperation has and will be essential to our economic recovery but the economic conditions in Spain are different from those in Poland, and trying to set one-size-fits-all economic policy at a European level is extremely problematic.

Instead, I would like to see Prime Minister Zapatero take forward significant chunks of President Barroso's recently published 2020 strategy, and to begin implementation of Professor Monti's report on the future of the Single Market, which will be ready in a matter of weeks and which I hope will refocus all of our minds.

If Europe wants to show its entrepreneurs and unemployed that it genuinely wants to provide them with new opportunities, the Spanish Presidency should start by making the completion of the Single Market its number one priority. It may not be as grandiose or controversial as a one-size-fits-all economic plan, but we will be able to look back in June at a Presidency of tangible results, rather than political grandstanding.

Article submitted to The Parliament Magazine (theparliament.com)

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