A modest, business-like European summit without rabble-rousers, angry farmers or crowds of demonstrators? No squabbling among member states about who's going to get the top jobs? What on earth is going on? There's no reason for us to cover it in the news - that has been the reaction of most of the media. This particular summit, however, was a first in at least one respect - for the very last time, this European summit was organised by the prime minister of one of the member states. All European summits to date have been organised by the country holding the rotating Presidency (chair) of the Council of the EU. European summits (European Councils) started off rather informally but over time became EU institutions, issuing conclusions documents and giving instructions. The Lisbon Treaty has made it an official EU body with its own permanent president and no responsibilities vis-à-vis any particular member state. The first of this new type of president, Herman Van Rompuy, has left office as Belgium's prime minister, after explaining to his former colleagues how he saw his new job. I will be returning to this because it will directly impact on the way the EU institutions operate at the highest level.
Mechanisms to be moulded. In many ways, the new regime still has to show it can operate. Most importantly, it has to appease doubts and understand that some irritation is inevitable. A number of foreign ministers have made no attempts to hide their annoyance at the new system that automatically excludes them from decision-making, now the domain of the heads of state. The foreign ministers are now pondering how they can have their voices heard in EU affairs and EU foreign policy without actually being able to attend policy deliberations. In the past, we have already witnessed cases where decisions made behind closed doors among a selected few then came a cropper when it came to other people interpreting and putting them into practice… The six-month rotating chairing of the Council of the EU by the member states has also been affected by the new set-up. The six month rotation will continue but will no longer cover the European summit (at precisely the moment that the summit is being made more effective and a recognised EU institution) and will no longer cover the Foreign Relations Council, which will now be chaired on a regular basis by the high representative/vice-president of the Commission (Catherine Ashton)… We can see why Spain, the first new member state to hold the rotating presidency since the Lisbon Treaty came into force, is busy scratching its head. The Spanish prime minister wonders what his EU role is exactly. Zapatero is consoling himself by convening two international summits in Madrid of a different ilk - the EU and Latin America, and the EU and the United States. It is Zapatero who will be meeting with President Barack Obama…Herman Van Rompuy will meet Zapatero in Madrid on Tuesday to discuss the situation. What place will member states' leaders have in the EU of the future? - this has to be decided as a matter of urgency.
No surprises in the “conclusions documents”. As for the outcome of this December's last “old style” summit, there are several reasons for the muted response. On the top political event of the day - climate change - the European summit fine-tuned the EU's position and decided how much cash the EU will stump up, but any decision will be made at the UN's conference in Copenhagen. The EU's position is important but not the be-all and end-all. It is world leaders in Copenhagen who will decide what happens.
The European summit has formally rubberstamped a very important document setting out what the EU is planning to do over the next five years (2010-2014) in the controversial arena of fundamental rights, the EU “area of justice”, anti-terror, combatting organised crime and everything connected with immigration and asylum. These are key aspects of EU identity but the document has two major shortcomings. Before the summit, it had already been agreed upon by the EU Council of Ministers and is based on a programme drawn up by the European Commission a long time ago (summarised in issue 10037). It is a weighty tome (over a hundred pages setting out countless dozens of basic guidelines) whose significance will grow with time as the guidelines are put into practice; but for the moment it is rather indigestible as far as public opinion is concerned, even though it covers fundamental issues in people's daily life.
Other issues are discussed in brief in a page summarising the policies set out in the conclusions document, like the exit strategy (withdrawing EU recovery aid), but on these fundamental issues, all the European summit has done is to take note of work to date (on financial surveillance) and decide on a timetable.
You will find the conclusions document attached at the end of this newsletter. As always, our reports on the summit focus on European aspects and quote heads of state across the board, rather than focussing on comments by the prime minister or president of any one country.
(F.R./transl.fl)