INTERVIEW: A hot, hot year for the EU's Swedish chief

Brussels - It promises to be a hot, hot year for Fredrik Reinfeldt, and not just because of global warming. On July 1, the Swedish prime minister is set to take over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union under the motto 'taking on the challenge.' With issues of climate change, financial supervision and EU reform all high on the agenda, his year promises to be warmer than most. 'It's going to be very hot. That's why we're talking about taking on the challenge, because it's so obvious that there are so many items that need so much leadership,' Reinfeldt told the German Press Agency dpa on Friday at the close of a two-day EU summit. Just six months after EU leaders agreed a package of laws aimed at cutting the EU's greenhouse-gas emissions, the bloc is facing calls to pay developing countries to fight climate change as well, in a push for a global deal at a conference in Copenhagen in December. 'As always when it comes to real money, real efforts and resources, it will be a tough discussion,' Reinfeldt said. At the same time, the EU is debating how its members should split the bill for supporting developing states' anti-climate-change measures, amidst tough opposition from poorer members such as Poland. 'When the world is discussing climate change, the least-developed parts point at the EU and say, 'You are the rich countries,' but when the EU meets, a lot of the countries inside the EU say, 'No, we are poor.' This is partly why these discussions are so tough,' Reinfeldt said. Sweden will also have to steer the EU as it digests the consequences of a repeat Irish referendum on the bloc's reforming Lisbon Treaty, scheduled for early October. Analysts say that a no vote, such as the one Ireland gave in June 2008, would be disastrous. But even a yes will throw the EU into upheaval, as the bloc seeks to nominate a new permanent president and foreign representative and overhauls the powers of the European Parliament. A yes vote would 'trigger a lot of questions, including on those high-ranking posts,' Reinfeldt acknowledged. 'We've put our first (EU summit) meeting on October 29-30, to be able to react to a possible ratification of the Lisbon treaty. ... I won't take it out in advance, but we have prepared for being able to react,' he said. In the midst of that overhaul, Reinfeldt will have to finesse a deal with the parliament confirming the re-election of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, whom EU leaders backed at Friday's summit, but whose support in parliament is not yet assured. 'If we don't get a clear mandate for a commission president, a signal to stop talking about names and get down to the job, this will affect the Swedish presidency. ... Lack of leadership now will have a negative impact on the issues that we need to react upon,' he said. As if those challenges were not enough, the presidency will also have to steer EU policy on explosive topics such as financial regulation, illegal and legal migration, relations with the Western Balkans and Turkey, a possible membership application from Iceland and a threatened gas row between Ukraine and Russia. And that list does not take into account the unexpected, such as Russia's August 2008 invasion of Georgia or Israel's January invasion of Gaza - two events which utterly dominated the beginnings of the recent French and Czech EU presidencies. 'I hope the feeling is that we are well prepared, but it won't be enough. We need others to be constructive, we need a part of luck, of course, because it's very often the unexpected that alters your expectations and what you have prepared for,' Reinfeldt said. 'It will be a very tough, but very interesting presidency.'