It’s time for responses

Economy and employment, environment, security, enlargement, international policy: the summit of EU heads of state and of government, held in Brussels on 10 and 11 December, offered a complete panorama of the issues that demand clear responses from the 27. Conducted under the current Swedish chairmanship of the European Council, the summit was the first since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty which, according to the final document of the meeting, “provides the Union with a stable and lasting institutional framework and will allow the Union to fully concentrate on addressing the challenges ahead”.Commitments reaffirmed. The “Conclusions” of the summit are contained in a document of 20 pages that treat of institutional issues, the economic and financial situation, the Stockholm Programme, the Copenhagen Conference on climate change, EU enlargement, and external relations. European leaders welcomed the new “stable” President of the Council (a role introduced by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1st December), Herman Van Rompuy. The Council also welcomed Catherine Ashton, EH High Representative for foreign policy. Altogether the constructive atmosphere that reigned at the summit of the heads of state and of government should be emphasized. “Our contribution to the so-called fast-start has been fixed at 2.4 billion euros per annum, for three years”, said Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish Premier and President of the EU Council until the end of December, outlining the agreement reached with a view to the Union’s participation in the UN Conference at Copenhagen on climate change. “The figure confirms the leading role being played by Europe” in terms of the protection of the environment. “We also underlined the overall pledge of the EU to reduce by 30%, instead of 20%, polluting emissions, so long as the other players” (primarily the USA and China) “do likewise”. Reinfeldt continued: “The principle was enunciated that all member countries should contribute fairly to paying the sum necessary to help the developing countries in the short term to tackle climate change and its effects. Of course the European quota will be that only if at Copenhagen an overall pledge of at least 7 billion euros per year is reached” down to 2012. “As far as Europe is concerned – added the Swedish Premier – the medium and long term pledge of 100 billion per year from 2013 to 2020 also remains fixed to effectively tackle climate change”.Reinfeldt’s successes. With regard to the EU allocation for fast-start, Reinfeldt explained that “these are new funds and old ones re-allocated, but in any case they are rapid funds to tackle the environmental problems in the developing countries”. The President then focussed on Copenhagen: “We will go to the negotiations strengthened by a determined and concrete position, as demonstrated by these funds. We have assumed our responsibilities on the climate, but now it’s the turn of others to follow suit”. Reinfeldt (whom various newspapers of the old continent have indicated as “European of the Year”) did not lose the opportunity to review the results achieved during the Swedish semester: “We have been able, as the EU, over these last six months, to nominate the President of the future Commission; then we convinced all the member states to ratify the Lisbon Treaty and to enable it to come into force. As a consequence we nominated Van Rompuy and Ashton to the new posts of EU President and High Representative”. Among his “successes”, Reinfeldt also enumerated the “guidelines to organize the new diplomatic service” for the representation of the EU abroad, “the interventions in favour of the Baltic area, the Stockholm Programme for the development of an area of freedom, security and justice, serving and protecting EU citizens, and the exit strategy from the economic crisis”.The problem of employment. More specifically on the crisis, the document with the “Conclusions” of the EU summit points out that the European economy is still far from recovery: “The economic situation is starting to show signs of stabilization and confidence is increasing”, says the document. But “forecasts suggest a weak recovery in 2010, followed by a return to stronger growth in 2011. But uncertainties and fragilities remain, while the employment and social situation is expected to deteriorate further in 2010”. The summit was among other things called to reflect on the future of the Lisbon Strategy, defined in 2000 to turn the EU into “the most competitive economy in the world based on knowledge”, research, innovation, employment and “quality jobs”. Far from having obtained the hoped for results, the Union will be called to speak of them again during a special summit, announced by the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso. “In February we will hold an extraordinary summit to define our common position on growth, competitiveness and employment, in other words the EU action to follow up the Lisbon Strategy”. Barroso confirmed that on this point no agreement has yet been reached between the 27 and that the question has been deferred to the semester of the Spanish Presidency and in particular to the extraordinary summit and the usual spring summit.