New anti-crisis summit

Who do I call if I look for Europe? Is the famous line is ascribed to U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, during the time of Nixon and Ford administrations. He referred to the fact that it was difficult to identify a single representative of the European Community (in the early 70s that was still the name of the current European Union). As regards its foreign policy, today the EU has now appointed a "High Representative", the current post of Catherine Ashton (GB). But there are far more important political tasks in the European Community. It is therefore almost certain that the question of "representativeness" will be addressed in the European Council – the meeting of 27 heads of state and government – on 18 and 19 October in Brussels.Faces and powers of the EU. The issue of representativeness, of the single "face" and "voice" of EU27, was raised a few days by most of the international press, wondering which of the EU leaders EU should receive the peace Nobel Prize in Oslo announced on October 12. The question is, essentially, whether in Oslo (where normally each award, which includes a check for just under one million euro, is received by two people,) will have to go the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, (Belgium), or the president of the EU Commission José Manuel Barroso, (Portugual) or the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz (Schulz). President Schulz provided a possible solution to the ‘representativeness’ question in the statement on the European Union being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: "On behalf of the European Parliament, we, together with the other EU institutions, look forward to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo". Perhaps, forcing the protocol, all three institutional figures will represent Europe at the awarding ceremony, or maybe a more original way to involve citizens will be devised? (one representative from each Member state?, Or 27 children, as proposed by the Swedish Commissioner Cecilia Malmström).Different views. The real point to be clarified concerns the relationship linking the different Community institutions, and if, more generally, the institutional architecture of the EU is functional to effectively lead such an extensive “common home”, with 500 million citizens. The thorny issue has come up now and again, especially since the outbreak of the economic crisis and the European Union’s delayed decisions to counter the recession, to defend the euro, to revive the real economy. These delays, however, are due in most part to the different visions of European integration by the member state governments, divided between convinced Europeanists, longstanding Eurosceptics, Euro-cautious and even recent anti-Europeans. The reactions to the Nobel award showed that the doubts on the prize didn’t come from other continents, but by the same EU member countries, politicians, the media and by European public opinions.Monetary union, bank supervision. The next summit of EU27 leaders in Brussels – once again focused on the measures to address the crisis and on the efforts to boost real economy – will provide yet another test for integration. "The Council will review progress in the implementation of the Pact for Growth and Jobs and, if necessary, establish additional guidelines to promote" employment and financial recovery, states the agenda. Council President Herman Van Rompuy will report – as he himself pointed out – on the “work in progress on the future economic and monetary union" as a result of the summit in June. "In this context, the Council will assess progress on the proposals for a single European banking supervisory mechanism”, advanced by the Commission in September, “and, where appropriate, establish further guidelines". During the meeting EU leaders “will also consider the broader issue of banking union".From spread to growth. The last summit, held on June 28 and 29, had adopted – in the words of Van Rompuy – “short-term measures to stabilize markets” and reach out to indebted countries; along with "further medium term measures for growth” and finally, “interventions in the long term to strengthen economic governance and thus the Union as a whole". In the summer summit’s vocabulary were heard words such as “anti-spread fund”, "assistance for Greece and Spain”, “investing for growth". But, a few days after the meeting, several Heads of State and Government who had participated backed off from the decisions, including the allocation of 120 billion euro for growth and employment. Harsh stands by the European Parliament and by Commission President Barroso (“commitments must be kept”) ensued, to remind governments to act coherently.