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The Costa Blanca and Costa Calida Le@der reports....

Spain has come out with all guns blazing in its role as EU presidents for the next six months. Only last week the prime minister introduced an audacious economic proposal to impose "corrective measures" on member states who fail to respect binding targets, as part of a new 10-year growth strategy that would replace the failed Lisbon Agenda, which was introduced in 2000.

Before it took over the role on January the 1^st the government had declared its loyalty to the new permanent president of the EU, Herman Van Rompuy, and his foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, amid confusion over the leadership roles under the new Lisbon reform treaty. however, Zapatero and co have quickly shown that they intend to play a driving role in the EU during its six-month presidency - at the risk of being snubbed, as happened last week over a bold economic proposal and declarations. Since then the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and his foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, have suggested the reverse.

France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche however said Spain's programme is not overly ambitious. "It picks up the main priorities that everyone is expecting: a way out of the crisis, immigration, external security and foreign policy and common defence policy," he said. "But it's clear that the institutions are being broken in ... and that each one will have to find its place," and "if we continue to add layers of institutions we will never make it."

Zapatero, who is currently being battered domestically in opinion polls by the conservative opposition and facing record unemployment, is hoping he can recover some lost ground by capturing the European spotlight but according to experts it's a risky strategy and German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle publicly dismissed the idea saying, "I do not think the idea of imposing sanctions on member states for not fulfilling fixed targets is sensible,"

We wait to see but one thing is for sure, with Spain in charge, the next six months should be interesting.

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