A “hot” summit

It will probably be one of the “hottest” summits in the history of European integration. The heads of state and of government of the 27 member countries will be meeting in Brussels on 29-30 October with an agenda packed with issues to be negotiated, decisions to be taken, and political problems to be resolved. The meeting has been preceded by a hectic round of diplomatic activity on the part of the current Swedish Presidency of the European Council.Lisbon Treaty, economy, external affairs. The summit has been prepared by numerous bilateral meetings, contacts between various European leaders, a debate in the European Parliament, and a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers on 26-27 October. The foreign ministers discussed the “institutional questions”, with particular reference to the Lisbon Treaty; spoke of the common position to be assumed on climate change in preparation for the Copenhagen Conference in December; and recurred to the issues raised by the economic and financial crisis and its grim repercussions on employment and on social cohesion that are being felt throughout the continent. Ample coverage was also dedicated at the Foreign Affairs Council, as no doubt it will be at the summit at the end of the week, to the Strategy for the Baltic Sea, irregular immigration and “external relations”, especially with regard to Iran, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Union’s “embassies”. The EU Council will also have to tackle the thorny question of appointments to key EU posts regulated by the Lisbon Treaty: in particular, the nomination of a “stable” President of the Union (in office for two and a half years, so as to give continuity to EU action) and of that of the High Representative for External Policy, or EU Foreign Affairs chief, who will also be Vice-President of the Commission and head of EU diplomacy. The European External Action Service (EEAS), as proposed by the Lisbon Treaty, would be an important innovation for the involvement of the EU on a planetary level. To this end the European Parliament has worked intensively in recent times, and during its session of 19-22 October adopted a specific Report on the matter, urging, in substance, that this Service be incorporated in the structure of the Commission, so as to assign to it a “community” rather than “intergovernmental” character, though leaving to the Parliament a kind of democratic control of the Union’s “embassies” as well as its budget.School of diplomacy. The Report approved in the EP, drafted by German MEP Elmar Brok, is focused, in particular, on the creation of an External Action Service “that would assist the High Representative for Foreign Affairs”, and be composed of personnel seconded from Commission, Council and member states. MEPs ask for “full involvement in the setting up” of this institution, and urge that “an agreement on its budgetary aspects” be reached. Brok placed a great deal of emphasis on this question: the Service “must remain totally under the control of the budgetary authority”, i.e. jointly of Parliament and Council. The Report recommends that EU offices abroad, in particular “the delegations of the Commission existing in third countries, associate offices of the Council and, as far as possible, the offices of the special representatives of the EU, should be unified” to form fully-fledged “embassies of the Union”. The Brok Report lastly proposes the establishment of “a European School of Diplomacy which would provide a preparation based on a harmonized and uniform syllabus, comprising suitable training in the procedures of consulates and legations” as well as in external relations, combined with “knowledge of the history and functioning of the EU”. Swedish mediations. Not least of the various “hot potatoes” due to be handled at the European summit is the conclusion of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, so as to permit its final entry into force. After the go-ahead given by the recent referendum in Ireland, the signature of the President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus is still lacking; he has, as a quid pro quo, asked for a kind of opt-out clause as regards the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is a request that immediately aroused a similar interest on the part of Slovakia. In the days preceding the summit, the Swedish Presidency has tried to find a compromise solution to the standoff. Vaclav Klaus himself said, on 23 October, that he was satisfied by the “proposal of the Swedish Presidency, which responds to the Czech Republic’s request relating to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty”. It cannot be excluded that the European Council will in effect decide to give some political guarantees in this sense to Prague, which would be translated into legally binding guarantees only at a later stage. During the parliamentary session in Strasbourg, the Swedish Minister Cecilia Malstrom, commenting on the approaching summit, had underlined the need to reach various results in the institutional, economic and environmental fields. She added: “For all this, to enable us to go forward, what’s needed, however, is that the Treaty should come into force. We need to clarify the ratification procedure, and we all expect the President of the Czech Republic to sign the text”.