Europe's Hopeful Over Obama -- But Fretful About Its own President - by David Paul Apell
As the United States prepares for a momentous political shift in less than three weeks, Europe has just marked its own first: a president from the former Soviet bloc. As the Czech Republic -- a member for just four years -- today took over from France the European Union's six-month rotating presidency, a country that up till now has been best known for some of the world's best beer becomes head brewmaster in Brussels at a time of frantic fermentation on the international scene.
Despite votes of confidence from Euro bigwigs like Javier Solana and José Barroso, what has made many nervous is the prospect of a helmsman with limited EU experience, on top of a shaky government, an economy that doesn't do business in euros (even the Slovaks just got with that program, for crying out loud), and a parliament which alone in Europe hasn't ratified the Lisbon Treaty, designed to both streamline the EU and deepen its integration (Ireland's voters sank Lisbon last June but are expected to vote again in late '09). Some had even suggested the Czechs swap places with their successor, Sweden, or that France extend its tenure.
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