Although the French Presidency of the European Union has ended on 31 December 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy does not want to let it go. In fact, he has proposed to continue his mandate as President of the Eurogroupe. Since the next EU presidencies, Czech Republic and Sweden are no eurozone countries, Sarkozy has suggested extending his EU presidency role until 2010 as leader of the euro area, in order to coordinate responses to the global financial crisis. Evidently, such suggestions were not well received by Czech Republic. Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra has replied saying "Nobody can take the presidency away from the Czech Republic. Any speculation over an extension of the current presidency is groundless and unacceptable."

It is well known that France has been suggesting that Czech Republic would not be able to do a good job wearing the EU´s presidency helmet. France believes that the Czech Republic is not providing a decisive lead on the financial crisis. Sakorzy has recently said that taking into account the economic downturn, “It is not possible that, in such a situation, Europe does not take the initiative.” Noticeably, such comments were addressed to Czech Republic.

On 9 February, Sarkozy has announced measures to help the French car industry. He announced state loans of six billion euro to Peugeot-Citroën and Renault. Sarkozy has made aid to the French’s carmakers dependent on the activity staying on French territory. According to Sarkozy “It is justifiable if a factory of Renault is built in India so that Renault cars may be sold to the Indians. But it is not justifiable if a factory is built in the Czech Republic and its cars are sold in France.”

Obviously, such comments have angered Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek who rightly denounced the measures as protectionists. In fact, Mr Topolánek declared that this type of attitude could jeopardise ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. He said "If somebody wanted to seriously threaten ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, they couldn't have picked a better means or time.”

Meanwhile, the Commission has stated that it had “certain concerns” about the lawfulness of the proposed measures therefore it will “review closely” the French plan. The Commission has stressed that the French measures could not contain conditions against the principles of freedom of establishment, free movement and non-discrimination on the basis of nationality since such conditions “would make the aid illegal and would not be tolerated.” The Commission is also investigating Italy and Spain packages to support car companies.

The clash over protectionism in the EU got worse when Mirek Topolanek, on an online chat on the Czech EU Presidency's website, slammed the eurozone countries' response to the global crisis and for endangering the European monetary union. He said "The response of the eurozone countries to the financial and economic crisis deformed the joint project of the euro more than any other imaginable event. Most of the national states using the euro started breaking the common rules by their declarations as well as by practical steps, while the basic anchor of the whole process is to adhere to these common rules.” He then warned that "If member states continue to prefer an individualistic and protectionist approach, and if they choose to become free riders of the system and continue breaking the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, then there is a big danger of watering down the whole project.”

Shortly after Sarkozy´s “protectionist declarations,” on 9 February, Czech Prime Minister announced his intention to organise an extraordinary EU summit in late February to discuss the economic crisis and the risk of a resurgence of protectionism across the Union. The Czech Minister of Finance, Miroslav Kalousek, speaking in the margins of the Ecofin Council in Brussels, on 10 February said "The Presidency feels that protectionism is currently the greatest threat facing Europe.” He added "Some of the indications are so strong that the prime minister has decided to organise a summit as soon as possible to ensure that heads of state and government clearly renounce protectionism in any form.” On the other hand, the European Commission President, Mr Barroso, has said “In principle we have nothing against an action of our member states to support the industry but it is clear that it is to be done in full conformity with European Union rules and principles, if not it will have a negative effect.”

The EU disunity become clearer when, on the same day that Czech prime minister announced the informal summit, the Elysée palace published a letter on its website from Sarkozy and Angela Merkel addressed to Topolanek and European Commission President calling for an informal EU summit. In the letter, they stressed, that the emergency EU summit should be focused on "restoring credit" as "a key priority.” Merkel and Sarkozy stated that it is “essential that a co-ordinated approach is followed to maximise the benefits for the whole of the Union.”

The economic crisis has been a big test for the EU and for its so called unity. The EU has been seeking a coordinated response to the financial crisis, however, in fact, the EU has failed to give an effective response to the crisis. There is not a coordinated response, obviously, member states put their own national interests first.

The Czech presidency is now trying to calm down the situation, after, probably, being criticised for not doing what an EU presidency is supposed to do – act as a mediator. Mirek Topolanek has recently said “I will not continue this media exchange with my friend Sarkozy, which is very damaging for both of us. This exchange was not necessary. I have learnt a lesson. Next time I will call him up." The Czech presidency is trying to avoid a political crisis to be added to the economic one.

Mirek Topolánek in order to show his determination to combat the crisis has recently announced that the informal EU summit will take place on 1 March. The informal EU summit will review the measures taken so far under the recovery plan. The Czech Prime Minister and the European Commission President stated that “at a time of growing pressure to adopt protectionist measures it is of particular necessity to adhere to the rules of the internal market and fair competition.” Mr Topolanek has confirmed that the informal summit objective is "to avoid protectionism." He said "My goal is to hold a political debate at the highest level in order to strengthen EU co-operation in countering the crisis."

French Prime Minister François Fillon has defended Sarkozy´s plans to help France's struggling car sector. He said that France was “not imposing any conditions on investments within the European Union” but that it asked carmakers “not to close assembly sites in France while they are using money lent by the state.” He said “There is no need for a debate on protectionism. […] We favoured a harmonization of the recovery plans and we wanted to see the ECB lend directly to the automotive industry. Since that was impossible, we decided to issue loans ourselves, and at market rates.” France has been defending its plans saying that in the absence of a common EU policy it has to take these measures.

On 22 February the EU leaders and finance ministers of Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands and Czech Republic as well as Jose Manuel Barroso met in Berlin in order to find an EU unified position ahead of the G20 meeting on 2 April. They have called for stricter regulation of the financial sector. In a joint statement the EU leaders said "All financial markets, products and participants – including hedge funds and other private pools of capital which may pose a systemic risk – must be subjected to appropriate oversight or regulation.”

It should be recalled whereas France and Germany have been calling for greater regulation of hedge funds the UK was not in favour of such idea.

Angela Merkel has said that details of how hedge funds and financial products would be regulated still needed to be devised. However, the main difficulty is working out the details on how complex financial products such as hedge funds, will be supervised. Hence, such image of the EU unity soon was dismissed. According to Mr Topolanek "It was obvious that the four countries representing the EU in the G20 (France, Germany, Britain, Italy) do not have the same opinion on a number of issues.” Moreover, he said "Our responsibility [as holders of the presidency] is to look for some unity. This won't be easy at all."

Moreover, several Member States such as Sweden, Poland, Belgium and Poland have complained about the EU's tendency to organise summits with special invitations. Those member states could not understand why Spain and the Netherlands were invited to the meeting since they are not members of the G20. Carl Bildt, Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, has said "I can't understand what was gained by Sunday's meeting in Berlin. This confusion is not only undermining small EU member states and the [European] commission, but the Council [the joint forum of all the members states] itself.”

In the meantime, EU leaders from central and eastern European states and José Manuel Barroso will discuss the economic and financial challenges facing the region, ahead of the EU informal summit on 1 March. According to Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, Poland's minister for Europe “The idea would be to make sure that the EU's response to the crisis is an answer for the EU27, and not just for some member states.”

The Czech presidency has also announced a second informal summit to be held in May to discuss the EU unemployment situation and social issues. Hence, there will be the Spring European Council, the June European Council and two informal summits. The EU is struggling for unified stance on how to tackle the economic crisis but having all these summits will make no difference.