As Europe rings in the New Year with church bells at midnight this Saturday, Denmark will officially take over the European Union presidency and the mission of further containing the debt crisis in the euro zone.
Coinciding with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel said was the EU's "most difficult time" since World War II, it has been the seventh time for the Danes to lead the bloc of 27 member states since joining it in 1973.
The stubborn crisis, along with consequent fiscal austerity and social discontent, has proven to be a hard nut to crack for each presidency since it broke out two years ago, thus posing more challenges to non-euro countries holding the presidency, namely Hungary, Poland and Denmark.
Although the rotating presidency is not a make-or-break factor in the EU's handling of the crisis, a presidency trio of non-euro members might still help the 17-member bloc chart a course out of the current crisis, as observed by Michele Chang, professor of political economy with the Brugge-based College of Europe.
"The trio can still be of help in highlighting other issues that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle," she added.
KUDOS FOR POLAND
The year 2011 in Europe has been undoubtedly dominated by the crisis in the euro zone as EU top leaders failed to come up with a desirable solution after repeatedly burning the midnight oil at a dozen of summits in Brussels.
In the first half of the year, Hungary as the then rotating presidency got largely distracted as it was under attack for the way it handled domestic issues, especially its controversial media law that had been criticized of restricting press freedom.
The fact that the non-euro Hungary received financial support from the EU and the International Monetary Fund did not help push forward the crisis-solving agenda while Hungary seemed to be not as ambitious as Poland.
From June to December, the Polish presidency, however, has assisted finalizing about 100 acts of EU law. Its key achievements included the six-pack economic governance, the single European patent agreement, the signing of accession treaty with Croatia, among others.
"Poland has made it," as the leading Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza said in a recent editorial, adding that there were "no fireworks but no slip-ups either" in the probably most difficult period in the EU's history due to the debt crisis.
Earlier this month, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also expressed his appreciation to the Polish efforts in helping with the eurozone negotiations despite not being a member yet.
"Poland demonstrated extraordinary capacity... Poles themselves should decide to enter the eurozone when that it is in their best interests," Barroso said.
It is also worth mentioning that both Hungary and Poland expressed interests in the intergovernmental treaty on stricter fiscal rules agreed in the last EU summit earlier this month among all EU members but Britain.
Nonetheless, Piotr Maciej Kaczynski, a research fellow with the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies, appeared more critical towards the outgoing Polish presidency in his study published in mid December by the Swedish Institute for European policy Studies (Sieps).
Kaczynski evaluated the Poles as "good soldiers" in the army fighting the crisis but "not generals" because the non-euro country was prevented from attending Eurogroup meetings.
However, he also believed that the main objective of the Polish presidency had been achieved, which was to improve its position in the EU.
DENMARK, CYPRUS AHEAD
Denmark has declared that its main objectives during the presidency in the first half of the year 2012 are to make Europe responsible, green, dynamic and secure, while Nicolai Wammen, the Danish minister for European affairs said in an interview earlier that the role of Denmark should be "a bridge over troubled waters."
Indeed, unlike its last presidency a decade ago when Europe was thrilled by a recent introduction of the euro and preparations for a huge wave of EU enlargement, Denmark may find it very challenging to lead the EU especially in the beginning of next year.
Top leaders of the bloc are scheduled to have one extra summit on January 30 and another regular summit in early March, and some experts believe that the debt crisis is very likely to keep worsening in the near future before hitting the bottom amid widespread market uncertainty.
It is almost certain that the Danes will not play a key role in further handling the crisis, and more specifically, the drafting of the eye-catching intergovernmental treaty. However, its new Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has displayed strong willingness to cooperate with other EU countries.
Denmark largely disappointed the EU and some member states about six months ago when the then center-right government insisted on reintroducing border controls without regard to the spirit of free movement within the Schengen regime
"The election of the new government has raised expectations on Denmark's potential to play a constructive role in the EU," Prof. Chang said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Furthermore, Cyprus has also began preparations to take over the reigns from Poland in next July for their first-ever presidency since the island country joined the EU in 2004.
"The entire state machinery is focused on preparing Cyprus for the EU presidency... Preparations have been progressing at an intensified pace," its government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou was quoted as saying last week.
The handling of the debt crisis has been forecast by many to painfully dominate the EU's agenda throughout the next year. Prof. Chang also noted that the EU had suffered from a democratic deficit for years while the crisis only further exposed the fault lines between the member states and fanned the flames of nationalism.
"The EU has muddled through from summit to summit but has not resolved the crisis... Everything else will be secondary until it is resolved," she added./.