Leading the European Union : small states and the EU Council Presidency /

Abstract

This paper examines small states holding the role of the European Union Council Presidency, a six-month rotating position and an opportunity for member states to guide policy-making in the European Union. The position is advantageous to the holder because the Presidency can levy influence over policy-making through introducing proposals for policy debates and advancing priorities in the Council. Each state creates a program of priorities in preparation for holding the Presidency, and this paper studies the advancement of priorities for three cases: Slovenia (first half 2008), the Czech Republic (first half 2009) and Sweden (second half 2009). The author carried out an assessment and evaluation of Slovenia and Sweden's five priorities and the three of the Czech Republic. The results were then compared to five other factors- how soon the next elections were, the domestic level of EU support, whether the state had prior Presidency experience , how many euros the state budgeted for the Presidency, and an average related to decision outcomes based on the Decision-Making in the European Union II dataset by Thomson et al. (2012). In comparing these factors, there appears to be a link between the support for the EU from the state's population and the successful advancement of the state's priorities.