Brussels, 01/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 1 December, Poland's former prime minister Donald Tusk, 57, took over the reins of the European Council for a fixed mandate of two and a half years.
Appointed by his peers on 30 August, Tusk, who is a former member of the famous Solidarnosc trade union, takes over from Van Rompuy (Belgium), who presided over the Council of Ministers at the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels for five years. While Van Rompuy was perceived as a master of the art of compromise (as well as of haïku), Tusk is judged by several media as rather “rough” and perhaps less consensual. His mandate certainly begins with strong statements on Russia - with Tusk believing that Putin's Russia is “a strategic problem” for the EU, rather than a “strategic partnership”, as he told the Financial Times on 29 November.
On Monday 1 December, Tusk cited four big challenges to be addressed during his mandate: protecting European values such as unity, freedom and solidarity against threats “from inside and out”; developing economic and monetary union; strengthening the EU's role on the international scene with relations with the US as the “backbone” of the community of democracies; and conquering the economic crisis. Among these areas for work are also efforts to keep the UK in the EU, and helping the Commission bring the €315 billion investment plan to life, which was presented by new European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Tusk was due to meet Juncker during the afternoon of Monday 1 December, as well as European Parliament President Martin Schulz over the course of the week.
As far as Van Rompuy is concerned, his results were commended by EPP Group leader Joseph Daul on 1 December who said that Van Rompuy could be “proud of the achievements” brought to the European project. In Tusk's view, Van Rompuy has enabled Europe to leave behind the “storms” it has been through - especially the eurozone crisis and when it was a question of keeping Greece in the single currency. It is nevertheless on the fate of the eurozone that Van Rompuy was also criticised - as having been too anxious to follow German instructions.
In his final public speech, in Paris on 25 November, Van Rompuy left a few warnings to his successor and the European leaders. He spoke of “three big responsibilities for the politicians in Europe: speaking truly - primarily as regards the efforts that need to be made, especially in the face of populism; creating hope and pulling out all the economic stops for growth - without taboos, without fear and without obsession (except for the result); and finally to ensure there is trust between countries, between institutions and between leaders”. (SP)