Sarkozy and the French EU presidency

Justin Vaisse has an article on the Brookings Institute website (hat tip: French Politics) on the impending French presidency of the European Union and Sarkozy. It is good read because Vaisse pinpoints what are the principal challenges for Sarkozy and France. Sugary excerpt:

For France more than for any other country, the European construction presents a dilemma. On the one hand, it extends French reach and allows Paris to attain a critical mass. On the other hand, the deeper France integrates, the less French it becomes and the more compromises it needs to accept for a greater collective good. Nicolas Sarkozy was elected on a platform of ambitious measures to reform France – measures which, given the degree of European integration and interdependence, often need the acquiescence and sometimes active cooperation of 26 other member states to be fully implemented. So the temptation is to use the presidency to aggressively promote one country’s specific set of interests rather than act in the European interest, which is, however, the key to a successful presidency.

[...] Sarkozy’s “European software” remains to be fully tested in international and institutional conditions which might prove challenging. On a more personal level, it remains to be seen whether he will succeed in striking the right balance between activism, bluntness and assertiveness, his favorite stance, and the more modest, patient, and consensual leadership that the exercise of the EU presidency demands.

The one thing that it is possible to say about the French upcoming presidency of the EU is that it will not be uneventful not just because events in Europe and in the world, but also because of its importance for Sarkozy, who cannot afford to be at the reins of a failure given its unpopularity at home. The biggest challenge for Sarkozy is that the success of the French presidency may depend on his willingness to think of the long term instead of the short term and doing things that will make the French again see him as Superman. In other words, success in this case may go hand and hand with stability and the willingness not to act where it is unnecessary and not to overreact. The problem of course is that Sarkozy loves nothing better than action and has the tendency to overreact because he believes that the only way to handle challenges and crisis is to get personally involved and to do anything necessary.