The expectations of Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU are probably exaggerated and German officials said this trenchantly. But I think Germany starts a number of important processes that it mentioned in its program for the six-month presidency. There are a number of action plans that namely Germany will begin to negotiate, even if they were worked out or launched by other institutions, political scientist Dionis Cenușa, a researcher at the Institute of Political Sciences at Liebig-Justus University in Giessen, said in a public debate entitled “Germany’s Presidency of Council of EU: impact on Europe, impact on Moldova”, which was held by IPN News Agency.
According to the expert, Germany acts appropriately when it puts its brains to work, but what Germany should do is to start the processes that will be continued by the others. It goes to action plans in the environmental sector, strategies for biodiversity, dialogues on the rule of law inside the EU, introduction of more techniques for digital solutions, including as regards COVID-19. In an ambitious way, Germany set all these as current objectives for its presidency. “Germany will make a lot of effort to start them and the other countries will have to later keep pace so as to maintain the discussions on the EU’s agenda,” stated Dionis Cenușa, who is IPN’s senior contributor.
The researcher noted the EU is permanently in the process of resolving crisis in general. There are difficulties in the EU’s relations with China and the U.S. “On the one hand, the EU is a victim of the worsening relations between China and the U.S. and this will affect global economy. On the other hand, the EU is at China’s disposal and feels the increasing Chinese influence in the EU. In multiple states that face the consequences of the health crisis, Chain’s investments and political influence grow. The EU should place particular emphasis in this regard through the EU’s strategic sovereignty and adopt a geopolitical position so as to reduce dependence on other players and come to the forefront.
According to Dionis Cenușa, Germany’s and German leadership’s capacity to carry out the set tasks during the presidency is primarily seen through the angle of the enormous image transfer from Chancellor Angela Merkel to the EU and, indirectly, from the EU to the region in which Moldova is situated, in particular to Moldova. Angela Merkel is a personality with big weight in decision-making at European level and when such a political leader is covered and covers the EU in a particular way, it does a favor to this organization.
The researcher said the EU has experienced an image crisis for many years, but the image matters in the formation of a perception of the whole organization and of the European integration as a historical process. That’s why when a political leader like Angela Merkel represents Germany, which takes over the Presidency of the Council of the EU, this matters a lot in terms of the perception it forms.
Another aspect is Germany’s great capacity on the whole to make real transformations in the EU. “When the home can be brought in order, and here I mean what Germany can do given the multitude of actions that need to be initiated to bring things in the European Union in order, the better functioning of things in the EU will advantage Moldova, starting with the lifting of travel restrictions in the EU and ending with assistance injections from which Moldova can benefit for alleviating the effects of the health crisis,” said Dionis Cenușa.
The debate “Germany’s Presidency of Council of EU: impact on Europe, impact on Moldova” was the 142nd installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
