By KUNA,
Brussels : France takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union from Slovenia on Tuesday.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barrosso together with EU Commissioners, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering will travel to Paris today for a working meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and members of the French government concerning the programme of the French EU Presidency.
Paris takes up the helm during a very difficult period for the 27-strong bloc, following the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by Irish voters in June.
Analysts here opine that the Irish rejection of the EU reform treaty will dominate much of Frances EU presidency as member states will try to find a way out of the current political impasse.
Sarkozy is set to visit the Irish capital Dublin on July 11 for talks with Prime Minister Brian Cowen who is expected to come up with proposals for an exit strategy from the crisis at the EU summit in October.
Brussels might put pressure on Dublin to put the Lisbon Treaty to referendum for a second time. All 27 EU member states must ratify the document before it can be implemented.
The growing public discontent in Europe over rise in oil and food prices will also eclipse other topics on the agenda. Sarkozy has suggested VAT on fuel be reduced, a proposal rejected by the European Commission.
The French Presidency, together with the European Commission, organized a major conference on food security titled “Who will feed the world?”, in the European Parliament on Thursday.
Getting agreement on an EU “energy package” will be the greatest challenge for the French Presidency of the EU, according to Sarkozy.
Speaking on “France 3” television on Monday evening, the French leader said that energy and the environment were among his top priorities and he would be pushing for progress on these issues.
A topic on which progress could be made is climate change. The EU last year agreed a series of ambitious goals, including reducing carbon dioxide gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020.
Anti-discrimination in Europe is an equally important topic to be handled by the French EU Presidency. The EUs Fundamental Rights Agency in its Annual Report for 2008, presented last week to the European Parliament, said there was ample evidence that racist violence and discriminatory behaviour persist across the EU.
In order to divert attention from the deep political crisis in the EU created by the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, Sarkozy may now put even more focus on his proposals of a Union for the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean Union will be launched at a special summit on July 13 in Paris, but it is still unclear how many leaders will attend. Libya has rejected the union and Arab League chief Amr Moussa has expressed reservations about the matter as well.
Irans nuclear programme and the Palestine issue are two more items on the foreign agendas which will keep Paris occupied for the next six months.
The second-half of EU presidencies (July-December) are hampered by long summer and Christmas holidays.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Slovenian EU Presidency has said that the signing of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2007 was a top achievement during its chairmanship.