The Czech Republic has inherited the EU presidency at a time of great international turmoil - a war in the Middle East, an energy dispute between Ukraine and Russia and of course the dismal global economic situation. France's successful EU presidency, personified by the super-energetic President Nicolas Sarkozy, which ended on December 31, is a difficult act to follow.
The Czech Republic might not seem like the ideal EU country to lead Europe during this difficult period when strong leadership is needed. It is a small country with no experience of the EU presidency, is not a member of the eurozone, the government coalition has no parliamentary majority, the ruling Civic Democrat Party led by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has a strong euro sceptic wing, Parliament has not yet ratified the Lisbon Treaty and President Vaclav Klaus is a euro sceptic.
This does not mean that the Czech EU presidency is doomed to fail - after all other small EU countries and member states not so keen on further EU integration have successfully presided over the bloc in the past. Frans Timmermans, the Dutch Minister for Europe, remarked recently that the Czech EU presidency will probably go more smoothly that many predict. "They're highly professional people. The team they've put in place is certainly qualified. Of course they've had some 'national events' but they've been listening to older and more experienced member states in a good way," he said.
On the other hand, I don't think the Czechs have any grand illusions and they know it will be difficult to make as big an impact as France did in the second half of last year. In a recent newspaper interview, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said: "We should be happy with getting things moving forward, be it a mile or just a few feet, so that when we come to the end no one will say 'we wasted out time, there were no achievements'."
Officially, the Czech presidency is to concentrate on the 'three Es' - economy, energy and external relations. This is understandable. Europe is facing its worst economic crisis in 50 years, the EU has a March deadline to agree on a common position for the November climate change summit in Copenhagen, and Europe has an opportunity to renew its strong relationship with the US as Barack Obama takes office on Tuesday.
Furthermore, the Czech Republic wants to integrate the western Balkans into the EU, revive the bloc's interest in enlargement and bring ex-Soviet Republics including Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova closer to accession talks with the EU.
Of course, as much as the Czechs would like to concentrate on the 'three Es' any EU presidency has to deal with crises that suddenly erupt. In this case, it was faced with two major difficulties as soon as it took office: the Israeli attacks on Hamas-ruled Gaza which has resulted in the deaths so far of over 1,000 Palestinians, and the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine over gas, causing a massive drop in supplies by Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled monopoly, to many of its EU clients.
These two crises will no doubt be a major test for the Czech EU presidency. Initially, Prague raised some eyebrows in EU capitals when a government spokesman appeared to tolerate the Israeli military strikes as 'defensive action' and when another referred to the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine as a 'bilateral matter' for these two countries to resolve. Such comments were probably due to inexperience, but the Czechs have since led EU missions to both the Middle East and Moscow to try and mediate.
At the same time Sarkozy, together with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has taken a leading role in trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. While there is no doubt that France has huge diplomatic clout in the Middle East, Sarkozy's involvement in the crisis was not welcomed in the EU, the point being that only the Czech Republic, as the holder of the presidency, should speak on behalf of the EU in such a crisis.
On the other hand, however, one can argue that in such a situation any help should be welcomed, especially from a country like France. The Czechs, who have little diplomatic experience in the Middle East, have publicly not criticised Sarkozy's latest initiative.
Neither immigration - much to the annoyance of Malta and other Mediterranean countries - nor the Lisbon Treaty is expected to be given much importance by the Czech presidency. "The Lisbon Treaty is not expressly one of the priorities of our presidency," Topolanek said recently.
The Czech Parliament is expected to vote on the treaty next month - its approval is not guaranteed and a rejection would be a major embarrassment for both Prague and the EU, and a second referendum will be held in Ireland in October, which the next Swedish presidency will have to oversee.