At an informal dinner of the 28 on the sidelines of the informal European summit in Tallinn on Thursday 28 September (see other article), the European leaders asked the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to put together over the next two weeks a programme of work setting out priorities for action at European level to be adopted by the end of 2018.
“I was mandated to translate this good debate and the visionary speeches we have heard recently into a concrete work programme”, Tusk announced on Friday 29 December. Based on the earlier Bratislava post-British referendum roadmap (see EUROPE 11626) and the Declaration of Rome of March of this year (see EUROPE 11754), this programme of work, which he has entitled 'Leaders' agenda 2017/18', will include the launch, at the end of 2017, of permanent structured cooperation in defence matters, and the deepening of Economic and Monetary Union with particular emphasis on the finalisation of Banking Union in the Eurozone (see EUROPE 11868). Furthermore, reference will be made to a summit of the Eastern Partnership to be held in the first half of 2018 under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Tusk reiterated the principles underpinning this work: - maintaining the unity of the Twenty-Seven and even of the Twenty-Eight; - finding solutions to the citizens' specific problems, particularly concerning security, migration and unemployment. “It will not be an à la carte Europe. Unity will be the cardinal principle, but if we cannot agree, we will have to move forward” in reduced format, with a vanguard, said the Luxembourg Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, whose recent address at the Sorbonne calling for a revival of the European project has forced his opposite numbers to take a position (see EUROPE 11870), said that the discussions in Tallinn reflected a “collective awareness that Europe needs a wake-up call”. He paid tribute to a “new working method” that allows for a very “free discussion” on future prospects and providing for “regular meetings” to speed up the relaunch of the EU. The aim is to agree, in 2018, on a joint roadmap that will be put before the European voters in spring 2019 to steer the mandate of the next European Commission.
The Lithuanian President, Dalia Grybauskaité, who expressed some scepticism, called for greater clarity on the substance of the forthcoming proposals, taking to Twitter to warn of “mirages in the desert”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Sophie Petitjean)