Failure at the border

Foreign affairs

The EU's Lisbon treaty, which took effect two years ago, greatly reduced the role of the rotating presidency in foreign affairs, although the presidency retained responsibility for enlargement negotiations.

Poland's presidency saw one high point, the signing earlier this month of Croatia's accession treaty – made possible by Hungary, during whose presidency the negotiations had been concluded. Other than that, it was fairly standard fare on enlargement: talks continued with Iceland, Turkey's negotiations remained frozen, the opening of Macedonia's talks was blocked by Greece. There was very little Poland, with its strongly pro-enlargement leanings, could do to remove Germany's veto against granting Serbia candidate status, or France's veto against opening talks with Montenegro.

Among Poland's main foreign policy priorities was the launch of a European Endowment for Democracy, which it just managed to squeeze in before handing over to Denmark: a political declaration on the launch was agreed by the member states on Friday (16 December). Diplomats complained that Poland's haste had weakened the endowment, which is supposed to support pro-democracy forces around the world.

Another Polish flagship initiative, the Eastern Partnership, also saw little progress during Poland's presidency. A summit of the partnership in Warsaw at the end of September was a lukewarm affair, exposing a lack of interest on the part of the EU's western and southern member states. Divisions appear to have deepened, with southern members focusing their attention on north Africa, and eastern members looking to the countries squeezed between the EU and Russia.