Brussels, 29/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Union's leaders will meet in Brussels on Saturday 30 August for a special European summit that will begin at 4.00pm with the traditional exchange of views with the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.
Initially convened after the European summit on 16 July failed to decide on the appointment of successors to Catherine Ashton as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Herman Van Rompuy as President of the European Council, there is now a better chance of decisions being taken because consensus has emerged about Federica Mogherini of Italy taking over from Ashton. Unless something unexpected occurs, the Italian foreign minister will become the new head of the European diplomatic corps. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk seems to be favourite as Van Rompuy's replacement.
If Tusk were to be appointed by his peers, he would also chair the eurozone summits, as the treaty currently sets out that eurozone summits are to be chaired by the president of the European Council.
Van Rompuy consulted his counterparts until Friday lunch time and seemed in the afternoon to have reached informal agreement on the two posts. The idea is to have the two names endorsed by simple consensus, but some delegations talked on Friday about a vote being taken to ensure that the qualified majority level is reached. Sources say holding such a vote is not certain.
The summit will be dominated by the situation in Ukraine, with Berlin calling Russia's intervention in the east of the country as military intervention (see related article). Some delegations, France for instance, hope to discuss the possibility of new sanctions. Iraq, Syria and the Middle East (Gaza) are also on the agenda.
The special summit may discuss a tricky question on request from France, namely the speed of reduction of budget deficits and ways of stimulating growth. Paris and Rome will discuss this on Saturday morning at a special meeting of Social Democrat leaders. France has suggested holding a special eurozone summit to discuss deficit reduction and growth stimulus measures.
The problem of the Ebola virus and the thousands of people who have died from it in Africa will be added to the agenda upon request by France (see related article).
Several farm organisations have asked the French president, François Hollande, to raise the question of the Russian embargo on the import of most EU farm products. In a letter to the French president, COPA-COGECA says that food and farm exports hit by the embargo total around €5 billion out of the full EU-Russia agriculture trade of €11 billion. The organisation wants the European summit to clearly support the European farm sector by making available funds earmarked to cover the unplanned eventualities. It says the €400 million crisis management tool is not enough to remedy the consequences of the embargo. (SP along with MD/LC)