French EU Presidency clouds relations with China, Asia 

The arrival of France into the rotating presidency of the EU on July 1 for the second half of 2008 represented a major challenge for relations with Asia, and especially China, where feelings have been running high against France and its president for several months.

The timing of the French presidency and some of its more controversial policy orientations at the head of the EU came at a time when a number of important events, meetings and options were to be made regarding relations with Asia.

The timing could imply serious consequences with China, one of the EU's major trade and investment partners in recent years, and have spillover consequences for EU relations with the region as well.

The EU's ongoing negotiations with China on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement and the ASEM meeting and process may be seriously affected by some of the perceptions of France.

At least three major events on the Asia-Europe calendar were scheduled for the second half of 2008 during the French presidency : The Olympic Game opening ceremony in Beijing in early July which had been the source of controversy over the hesitation of President Nicolas Sarkozy and other European leaders attending, the biannual Asia-Europe Summit meeting (ASEM), coincidentally set for Beijing in October and normally attended by heads of state or governments, and the annual EU-China Summit set for Lyon in October.

The hesitation by Sarkozy over attending the Olympic ceremony in reaction to the Tibetan issue was to have been resolved after consultation with other EU partners, but a comment in the China Daily July 4 stated that Sarkozy was not welcomed.

The developments occur in a period which has witnessed massive demonstrations in China against French retailers and other interests as a result of a backlash against anti-Chinese displays during the Olympic torch ceremony in France earlier this year, and verbal jousting between the two sides since.

According to some Chinese sources, some of the friction with France dates back to early 2008 when the incoming Chinese ambassador to Paris was kept waiting two months before being able to present his credentials and take his post in the midst of the Tibetan controversy, in what China saw as a calculated affront.

Sarkozy personally is also regarded as having a highly-protectionist image at a crucial time in the negotiations over the Doha Round of world trade negotiations and bilateral EU negotiations of trade agreements with a number of Asian partners.

President Sarkozy himself sought to make a particular point of attacking the EU trade policy in the person of its Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, thereby reinforcing the populist-protectionist approach of France in this internal EU and global debate.

On other policy areas, France will hold the presidency of the EU at a key time for European institutions and integration in the wake of Irish referendum rejection of the proposed Lisbon Treaty, which also sent shock waves throughout the world, and in reviewing the EU Security Strategy. In its recent White Paper on Defence policy, the French government indicated that Asia would be a strategic priority in the future and that it would seek to enlarge European defence and security cooperation, without entering into great detail on the issue. France and its Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner are known to favouring enhancing the international community's "responsibility to protect" against genocide, war crime and human rights violations; a controversial issue in parts of Asia.