Brussels, 01/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - Organised ahead of an informal meeting of EU heads of state in Brussels on Sunday 1 March 2009, the leaders of the Central and East European Member States held a separate meeting to stress the need for solidarity within the EU. Speaking after the meeting, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said that this solidarity has to take the form of respecting the rules of the internal market and the EU treaties in general. Several countries in Europe oppose the idea of a special aid package for Central and Eastern Europe, although Hungary is reported to be continuing to pursue the idea.
At a short press conference, Donald Tusk stressed the need “to maintain and adhere to the pan-European solidarity,” while respecting the rules and spirit of the Single Market. “We all wish that Europe avoids the temptation of protectionism and egotism,” he added, calling for “more responsibility and more optimism”. Barroso said that the meeting had been useful in order to gain better direct understanding of some of the current concerns, welcoming the way that the new Member States were sticking to the principles, describing this as “a great encouragement for all of us who have to work on a daily basis for a coordinated EU answer”. He explained: “It is very important in times of difficulties our citizens understand that all European countries are working together along the same lines”.
Meeting on the imitative of Poland, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Visegrad group (comprising Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia), the countries' leaders were able to formulate a coordinated message to relay to the full EU27. The significance of this meeting of Central European leaders should not be overlooked at this time of crisis, it is largely of symbolic importance politically. The leaders present are certainly not intending to express opposition to the 'old' Member States or to eurozone Member States. Indeed, some of them even admit in private that they do not really understand the point of holding the mini-summit in the first place. They say that the idea of holding a meeting should not be seen as a rapprochement among countries in the same boat. While all have certainly been hard hit by the crisis and share a number of problems, there are huge differences from one country to the next. Poland has been playing down the expectation nature of the meeting, stressing that this was not the first time that these particular leaders had met up ahead of summits. “We don't want to create any divisions in Europe,” explained a Polish diplomat ahead of the meeting, arguing that they would not be calling for EU aid for the region as a whole.
“I don't believe that Eastern Europe is a special region ; I don't believe it is necessary to separate off several countries within the EU ; and I will back EU aid for any country that needs it, not Eastern Europe in particular,” explained the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, in essence on arriving at the full Summit meeting. The Estonian prime minister, Andrus Ansip, said that he “firmly opposed the idea of creating an Eastern bloc” within the EU. “I do not believe that there is any need to support Eastern Europe as a whole - these countries are very different from one another,” he explained, pointing out that unlike its neighbour Latvia, Estonia was not suffering from a credit crunch. The leader of eurozone finance ministers, Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, said Eastern Europe was not a bloc but was facing special problems which would have to be discussed. He was echoed by the prime minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who explained that action was needed in solidarity with Eastern European Member States but not in a collective fashion but rather bilaterally to help those needing help. (Our translation for the quotations in this paragraph.)
Arriving at the dinner of EU27 leaders, Hungary's prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, made a renewed call for a special aid package for the Eastern European banking industry. “We should not allow a new Iron Curtain to be set up and divide Europe into two parts,” he told reporters. Gyurcsany said that a new challenge was being faced - uniting Europe financially and economically. He hoped it would be possible to raise between €160 billion and €190 billion, well above the €24.5 billion that the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and World Bank said on Friday 28 February 2009 that they were willing to provide over two years (see EUROPE 9850). Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said that the situation differed from country to country in Eastern Europe. “The situation is very different… We cannot compare Slovakia or Slovenia with Hungary,” she said. (Hungary is facing huge liquidity problems.) She added that what had been demonstrated thus face, in the case of Hungary as it happened, was that the EU would help countries that needed it and would of course continue to do so. Referring implicitly on Hungary's request for up to €190 bn in aid for Eastern Europe, Merkel said she did not think it was a good idea to discuss the issue on the basis of such astronomical figures.
The idea mooted during the week by the Hungarian and Polish prime ministers of making it easier to join the euro does not appear to be gaining ground (see EUROPE 9847). "I don't think we can change the accession criteria to the euro overnight," explained the chair of the 16-nation eurozone group, Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker. (A.B. trans fl)