France is preparing itself to take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union at a time which will be a new chapter in several areas for the European Union.

Firstly, following the Irish ‘no’ to the Lisbon Treaty, France will be expected to deal with the new institutional crisis and to convince those member states that have not yet ratified the treaty to go ahead with it as planned.

The Lisbon Treaty is the result of long negotiations aimed at making the European Union efficient, more transparent and more powerful in the world. Europe is often perceived as too complex and too distant from its citizens’ uncertainties - sadly, the result of the Irish referendum illustrates this. In fact, the Lisbon Treaty has the solutions to these problems.

Ireland rejected the treaty, but 19 other member states have ratified it. We call on the rest of the countries to ratify the treaty. We will evaluate the situation at the end of this process, hopefully before the European elections in 2009.

We want to give the treaty a chance and move away from self-analysis and on to proactive European policy on the real global challenges which France will take on during its Presidency.

In my capacity as chairman of the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament, I welcome that the French Presidency has set real priorities for situations that require urgent reaction and where the European Union can really make a difference: the fight against climate change, a more efficient energy policy, strengthening our capacities outside the European Union and controlling migration flows.

These priorities are very close to those of my own group. In this era of globalisation, our group is convinced that the European Union must give its citizens more security. This ‘Europe of security’ is not limited to defence and the fight against terrorism and organised crime. It is also to reassure our citizens about food security, security of energy supply and keeping our social models. The European Union must therefore be strong, be capable of imposing its standards and rules regarding food security. It must have a common energy policy and make its migration policy more harmonised. We are determined to support France to progress as far as possible in all the topics which will be on the agenda during its Presidency.

France will have considerable challenges to meet in the next six months but I am confident in the progress of the work. France will go into this Presidency in the spirit of ambition and teamwork and will - I hope and I believe - meet the expectations of its partners and its citizens.

(*)MEP Joseph Daul is chairman of the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament