At the end of August in Brussels, the President of the European Council, António Costa, began a tour of the capitals that will take him to almost all the Member States of the European Union between now and Friday 19 September.
“These conversations will help shape our common agenda for the months ahead. As President of the European Council, it is my duty to listen and to understand the priorities of all leaders - especially in these uncertain times. My role is to build consensus”, he said in a press release.
In the first week of September, the President of the European Council will visit Slovenia (Monday 1), Croatia (Tuesday 2), Austria (Wednesday 3), Romania and Bulgaria (Thursday 4), and the Czech Republic and the Netherlands (Friday 5).
In terms of content, the main geopolitical issues - transatlantic relations, aid to Ukraine, the Middle East, enlargement, and Mercosur - will be addressed.
What we have seen this summer shows that we are now living “in a world of coercion”, said a European source on Friday 29 August, referring in particular to the trade agreement between Europeans and Americans and the bilateral meeting on Ukraine between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to this source, the EU cannot be proud of the results achieved during this sequence (see EUROPE 13694/13), but “that does not mean the way we managed it was not intelligent”, given Europe’s “vulnerabilities”.
On the strengthening of defence, Mr Costa would like to hear the views of heads of state or government in order to feed into the work of the European Commission and the European External Action Service aiming to draw up a ‘roadmap’ on the EU’s state of preparedness by 2030 (see EUROPE 13668/6). The informal European summit on Wednesday 1 October in Copenhagen, on the eve of the European Political Community summit, will provide guidance to the EU institutions, with a view to presenting this ‘roadmap’ ahead of the European Council on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 October.
The President of the European Council also wishes to raise the issue of the security guarantees (training for the Ukrainian army, border protection, infrastructure reconstruction) that European countries would provide to Ukraine as part of a peace agreement with Russia.
With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to this European source, Mr Costa considers that the EU should be more reactive and “regrets the fact that it is incapable of making joint decisions in line with its values”, even by a qualified majority of EU countries. He is well aware that not all Member States are on the same wavelength, even if positions have evolved in the face of “the disproportionate use of force against Palestinian civilians by the Israeli government”. At the end of September, Mr Costa will be attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where several countries, including France, Canada and the United Kingdom, may recognise the State of Palestine.
In the economic, budgetary and commercial spheres, the former Portuguese prime minister wants to maintain the momentum of work on regulatory simplification, following on from the ‘Budapest Declaration’ adopted by the EU27 in November 2024 (see EUROPE 13521/2). In light of the difficult trade relations with Washington, he intends to press ahead with promoting trade with other strategic partners for the EU, such as Mercosur and Mexico, in the run-up to the EU/CELAC summit on 8 and 9 November in Colombia.
As for the EU’s post-2027 budget, Mr Costa, in coordination with the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU, would like to hold an initial debate on the architecture of the future Multiannual Financial Framework at the European summit in December. He aims to reach a final agreement by the end of 2026, when the French presidential elections will take place in the spring of 2027.
More information on Mr Costa’s tour of the capitals: https://aeur.eu/f/i76 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)