Today, 1 January 2009, the Czech Republic will take over from France the Presidency of the European Union (official website). The Presidency mainly consists of the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the EU (i.e. organizing and chairing all the meetings of the Council) but has also evolved into some sort of representational duty of the EU:s work. Each separate meeting of the Council is headed by the responsible government minister of the member state holding the Presidency and the Presidency is rotated every six months; after the Czech Republic Sweden will be next in turn. After the Slovenian EU Council Presidency…