The EU’s rotating presidency should be scrapped

The flip EUEUEUEU side of Europeans taking much of August off is that they are expected to put in a bit of a shift come . The back-to-school feeling has been palpable in Brussels as thousands of Eurocrats return from the 27 member states to get the show back on the road. After much air-kissing and a few long lunches, the prospects for the months ahead are addressed, starting with European elections ahead of next year’s summer holidays. Before then, the bloc will have much to keep it busy, such as how to police artificial intelligence, push ahead with plans to admit new members, or increase its budget to keep money flowing to Ukraine. On September 13th a grandiloquent “state of the union” speech by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will dispel any memories of beaches and sunny getaways from those who still harbour them.An organisational quirk dating back to the ’s earliest days is meant to help smooth the continent back into action: the rotating presidency. Every six months, a new country is put in charge of running vast swathes of the bloc’s business. Spain took over the honours from Sweden on July 1st; until the end of the year its ministers and diplomats will chair most meetings of their peers. Few expect “ presidencies” (technically the presidency of the Council of the European Union, one of its three main bodies) to achieve much during the summer break. Alas, even now Spain’s ability to manage the bloc’s business is in doubt. Inconclusive elections in July mean all its ministers are in “acting” mode, and focused on the political imbroglio at home, not to mention their careers. Foreign-ministry types who run much of the presidency business remain in place, but lack political direction as fresh elections loom. Pedro Sánchez, the (acting) prime minister, was meant to lay out Spain’s priorities as holder of the presidency to the European Parliament in July. That has been pushed back to October.