First summit that is really his. This is the first summit that is really his. Herman Van Rompuy has organised the first informal European Council under his presidency this Thursday. This will have his mark on it and those taking part will be very limited in number (it will in fact be limited to heads of state and government alone). There is a short list of points to discuss and the place in which discussions will take place is rather unusual - a former library rather than the Justus Lipsius building. Unfortunately, the attention of the media was drawn more to external aspects than the contents of the meeting and the possible results of it. One British newspaper accused Mr Van Rompuy of “acting like a king”, displaying grandiose behaviour and having chosen the Solvay library - with lots of fine ornaments but which is ill-equipped. Some of the continental press latched onto sovereignist ideas supposedly put forward by Mr Van Rompuy. This would actually be totally out of character for him and we can interpret his choices as going in exactly the opposite direction: going beyond the formal stage of summits, where each head of state has an allotted timeframe for speaking and where personal contact is almost impossible. Mr Van Rompuy's approach should allow a genuine exchange of views.
At first glance, there is obviously one problem that still persists: how will the ministers and Community institutions be informed of the orientations decided upon at the summit? The results of a European Council being uncertain or misunderstood by those who are supposed to put them into place, has already occurred in the past. There is a simple answer: it is the permanent president himself (therefore his only public duty) who should ensure a genuine follow-up of the decisions made at the summit and transmit this to the other institutions, including the European Parliament. Since his nomination, Mr Van Rompuy underlined the fact that “when I speak, it will be on behalf of the EU and with the certainty of as large a consensus as possible (see this column in EUROPE 10048).
Getting the EMU's limping leg to walk. On this occasion, his main objective, as outlined to members of the European Council earlier, is as clear as it is essential: relaunching Europe's economic governance in an effort to rebalance Economic and Monetary Union, which, according to the famous depiction provided by Jacques Delors, is actually limping because the monetary leg is solid but the economic leg is too weak (see the following pages for the summary of the Van Rompuy document). He believes that it is up to heads of state and government to take charge of economic governance: it is them who are responsible for national economic strategies and they should also be responsible for this strategy at an EU level. One should not become fetishistic about the name used for this operation, whether it is called economic government or coordination of economic policies. What counts is that a common strategy exists, which aims to create more growth and more jobs. We are aware to what extent the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, shares the same objectives.
Criticising something that does not yet exist. Attempts to denigrate Mr Van Rompuy's intentions and behaviour even before he has begun to take action are outrageous. They should be located in a general context. We are able to read and hear pessimistic or sarcastic commentaries about the Lisbon Treaty and about the innovations the treaty introduces, whilst forgetting the fact that they have just come into force. Affirmations have already been made about the weakness of the Barroso II Commission, which has barely begun its work just a few hours after the investiture of the European Parliament. The most spectacular innovation is the dual role of the high representative for foreign and defence policy (and who will at the same time be the president of the External Relations Council and the vice president of the European Commission). This development only comes into being as from this afternoon and Catherine Ashton, who has been designated for this role, will not have the European diplomatic service action instrument for a number of months. The statues for this are still being worked on and the service will not be operational for a considerable period. It is quite easy to decry something that does not yet exist!
The same reasoning is valid for future “strengthened cooperation” (which will enable member states that wish to move forward between themselves to do so and leave states that do not wish to pursue this goal, on the sidelines). This also applies to other aspects of the Lisbon Treaty. The German foreign affairs minister, Guido Westerwelle, recently declared that “the constant denigration of Europe is disastrous. Let's talk a bit about what we have actually achieved”. One ordinary European citizen discovered a formula that was even more efficient, in a blog that is open to all, “before saying what the problem is, it is perhaps necessary just to point out that things have only just begun”.
Herman Van Rompuy's task really begins this Thursday. Let's wait at least until this phase actually begins. (F.R./transl.fl)