Spanish EU presidency plays second fiddle

Spain's six-month EU presidency ends today. For the first time the EU has had two presidents, after the Treaty of Lisbon came into force. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung analyses how the two function: "The temporary president Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been wise enough to try not to make life unnecessarily difficult for the new permanent president Herman Van Rompuy. Always trying to present himself as a 'good European' he was an attentive host at home and otherwise let the Belgian go first. ... The Spanish experience in the new era is that whoever holds the rotating Council Presidency - if he doesn't happen to be in Berlin or Paris - only plays a geographical walk-on part. The really important things are prepared in Brussels. That was how it was with the first crucial operation to rescue Greece when Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy held talks with the EU leadership and Zapatero wasn't even invited."

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