Sweden’s priorities for its six-month European Union presidency, which started on July 1, possess a welcome clarity. Top of its list are the fight against the financial crisis and recession, and the need for an international climate change accord at a Copenhagen conference in December.

Almost as important, if maddeningly tedious to average Europeans, is the matter of EU institutional reform. If Irish voters approve the bloc’s Lisbon treaty in October, Sweden will have to broker deals on who is to be the EU’s first full-time president and who is to replace Javier Solana as its foreign policy chief. The Swedes will also be busy with the practical steps needed to ensure the smooth enforcement of the Lisbon treaty in early 2010.