Nothing to smile about

The usual summit of smiles, but more than ever an interlocutory meeting. The European Council meeting of March 19-20 brought EU-27 heads of government and State to convene in Brussels in order to discuss urgent issues triggered by the economic recession, along with concrete problems, and to adopt provisions (revitalisation funds, funding lines to impoverished states…) highlighting the serious question of employment. Czech President-in-Office Mirek Topolanek, described the “success” of the presidency. Indeed, the spring summit confirmed the parties’ joint commitment to solve the crisis, but it also shed light upon differing positions to this regard. A number of decisions were in fact postponed including those regarding the definition of a wide range of rules for financial markets and for the Community’s after-Kyoto (sustainable energy) line of action, that will be debated on world scale in Copenhagen at the end of the year. Perhaps the reunion of the twenty-seven States was affected by the uncertainties of the global situation and by London’s next G20. In fact, the President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso, wishing to convey the picture of a successful summit, declared: “We took decisions aimed at revitalising the economy within the framework of social issues and employment. Now investments and consumer-confidence ought to be promoted in order to spur financial recovery. The European position will need to be viewed within the framework of international response”. This is the principle that President Nicolas Sarkozy underlined during past semester’s EU leadership: the crisis involves everyone and we can only emerge from it together. Last week’s European Council was marked by caution, since the outcomes of the first national and EU anti-crisis measures are still not known. “For this reason – Topolanek claimed – it’s useless to promote new projects and actions”. For the same reason the EU gave a negative response to US President Barack Obama’s request of a package of measures in support of real economy that were much more substantial that those adopted in the Old Continent. At present, the EU appears to tread carefully since it is objectively impossible to assess the effects of the crisis upon national economies, world trade, public and family budget. “The worse has yet to come”, remarked various European premiers, especially those from Eastern Europe. The EU did well to shift the attention upon the social and occupational spin-offs of recession, that are scheduled for debate in Prague on May 7; although the meeting was “downgraded” as a summit between the rotating presidency, the Commission and the social partners. Member States’ leaders will stay home. The Union, displaying greater coordination, albeit marked by a hesitant approach, is presently affected by the domestic political crisis of the Czech Republic. In fact, on March 24, the Social-Democrat opposition managed to pass a no-confidence motion against Topolanek’s conservative government with a majority-vote, thus paving the way to an embarrassing government crisis. Indeed, the following day President Topolanek, who was expected at the European Parliament for a debate on the outcomes of the summit, admitted the difficult situation that risks affecting the works of the Presidency-in-Office and the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty under way in Prague.