The EU's rotating presidency, which passes to a different member-state every six months, is untenable in the long term, the Commission President said yesterday. Dismissing the system as "ineffective political tourism", Mr Romano Prodi said it would have to be abandoned as the EU grew larger.
"We cannot go on spinning around like this. It is a big problem for us to work like we do now, with different negotiation cultures and different people," he said.
Mr Prodi was speaking as the Commission visited Stockholm for Sweden's first EU Presidency since the country joined the EU in 1995.
At a joint press conference with Mr Prodi yesterday afternoon, Sweden's Prime Minister, Mr Goeran Persson, made it clear that he did not share the President's view.
Referring to a decision made at last month's Nice summit to hold all future summits in Brussels once the EU expands to 18 member-states, Mr Persson said the move would detract from efforts to bring the EU closer to citizens.
"It will change the possibilities for presidencies to have a direct presence in the different countries. We have to find another way of doing it," he said.
Mr Persson's minority Social Democratic government hopes to use the six-month presidency to persuade the Swedish public that the country should adopt a more enthusiastic approach to European integration.
Sweden has the lowest popular support for EU membership of any member-state, and Mr Persson acknowledges that it will be difficult to persuade his fellow-citizens that they should adopt the euro.
Many of the ministerial meetings scheduled during the Presidency will be held in remote parts of Sweden, including one above the Arctic Circle.
Mr Prodi said he was confident that Sweden's Presidency would not be affected by the fact that the country did not belong to the Economic and Monetary Union.
And he welcomed Sweden's focus on "the three Es", enlargement, employment and the environment.
"I'm only sorry they were not followed by the euro, so we could have four Es", he said.
Following the turbulent six months of the French presidency, many observers have predicted that the Swedish incumbency will be low-key by comparison.
Mr Persson insisted, however, that Stockholm was mainly concerned with the unglamorous task of accomplishing the hard work of preparing for enlargement.
"It won't be low-key but transparent and humble and not pretending that we are anything other than the Swedish Presidency carrying forward the European agenda.
"It's cold here, it's dark, we've had nothing free. We've worked for everything and it's in our tradition to work hard," he said.
