Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden’s prime minister, on Tuesday outlined the priorities for his country’s European Union presidency – and institutional changes were bottom of his list.

Sweden’s six-month spell in charge, which starts today, will unavoidably be affected by José Manuel Barroso’s struggle for rapid reappointment to a second five-year term as European Commission president; the effort to secure ratification of the EU’s Lisbon treaty; and by the possibility that EU leaders will have to select the bloc’s first full-time president as early as October.