EU vote backs modest role for president

BRUSSELS, March 11 (UPI) -- A vote this week by the European Parliament signals a modest role for future EU presidencies and addresses a gray area in the Lisbon Treaty, analysts say.

The treaty is nebulous on the exact roles of the EU's future three main political players -- the European Council president, the European Commission president and the EU's foreign minister. A Monday vote by members of the European Parliament's constitutional affairs committee backed a more modest EU presidency and served to help define those roles, the European Observer reported Wednesday.

The MEPs voted to accept a report drafted by Belgian center-right MEP Jean-Luc Dehaene calling for the rotating European Council presidency to be restricted to representing the European Union at leader level on common foreign and security issues and is seen as a move to ensure member states don't become too dominant in future EU decision-making under the Lisbon Treaty, the Observer said.

Smaller EU states pushed for a modest role for the presidency, particularly after the recent French presidency, in which French leader Nicolas Sarkozy was criticized for his abrasive style, the newspaper said.

Officials said the report is to be voted on in plenary EU sessions in coming weeks.