An Assessment of the German Presidency in the EU Council

Abstract

The article concerns the German presidency of the Council of the European
Union in the first half of the year 2007. The text is focused on three aspects
of the presidency. Firstly, it analyses whether the Federal Government of
Germany had sufficient resources for an effective execution of the Council
presidency. Secondly, the article deals with the question of whether there
was enough political will to use these resources. And finally, it examines
whether the presidency was able to meet the demand which arises from
individual presidency roles. The analysis of the presidency is based on two
main subject matters: the procedure of renewal of the blocked reform of
the treaties, and energy and climate policy. Germany belongs to the
European „heavyweights“, but it took over the presidency during a
complicated phase of the European integration. The German presidency
was therefore anticipated with high expectations and difficult tasks to fulfill.