The  French Presidency of  the European gets under way officially as of Tuesday (July 1)  amid more controversy than almost any other in living memory. That is  without question why President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the creation of an elite corps of journalists to cover events of  the coming six months. The condition of being included: “Being known to be sympathetic and to have a track record of good behaviour”, one journalist told us.

EU presidencies are noted for their extravagance, explained as projecting a favourable national image. But Sarkozy has wrapped some hefty and controversial packages in the tinsel of prestige trains for the European Parliament, a €250,000  trip up the River Seine for MEPs and a rolling programme involving top hotels, restaurants and, of course, meals prepared by top French chefs.

On the menus will be European Security, to be debated in Paris by MEPs for two-and-a-half hours during a lavish day of Parisienne follies but, more importantly, a French putsch (sorry push) to maintain agricultural subsidies for French farmers. Official French policy is diametrically opposed to Britain, Sweden and other more liberal countries and is pushing for the EU’s state funded system of subsidies and tariffs to be exported around the world.

Never mind that the world bank has declared the European Union capable of maintaining food security with subsidies the French definitely want things their way. They also want the president of  the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso out of office because he has leaned too much towards the liberal view. Not to mention Britain’s Peter Mandelson, in charge of external trade, who sees French ambitions as an enormous threat to its economic stability.

Protectionism is built into the French plans and France, denied a real chance to put the Lisbon Treaty, otherwise known as the EU constitution into effect is, as we have reported, desperately trying to find issues that  can be fixed in concrete as having  been “agreed in Strasbourg”. Stfrasbourg last week launched a campaign in Brussels – entirely in French – to have the European Parliament permanently based there. This is seen by some as a good idea but by others as a step that would weaken the institution by  separating it from Commission and Council in Brussels.

Don’t take our word for it: the Belgian French language newspaper Monday described the French Presidency as advancing badly. They described the presidency as a diplomatic rodeo of European affairs with  Paris becoming the instigator of the Union’s evolution. They  have made their own inquiries and discovered Sarkozy to be a ‘a bizarre beast who understands nothing about Europe’. They cite an EU official describing the French President as ‘egocentric’ and concluded that the French Presidency will be two faced.

Unlikely we or Le Soir willl  be at any of the planned cosy meetings planned by the woman in charge of creating the media coterie Madame de Carne, wife of Michel Barnier the French Foreign Minister.