EU STARTS TO CURE ITSELF OF SUMMIT FEVER
FT
April 2, 2009 2:53pm
Just as sunny weather has come to Brussels for the first time this
year, so have the first signs that the European Union is weaning itself
off its addiction to ever more frequent summits. True, today’s G20
event in London is the mother of all summits, and there are plenty
of Europeans at it (too many, some non-Europeans might say).
But other planned summits are being downgraded or won’t be particularly
grand occasions. Back in February Mirek Topolanek, the recently
deposed Czech premier, announced he intended to hold two emergency
anti-recession summits – one to uphold the EU’s free trade and single
market principles against the threats of protectionism and economic
nationalism, and the other on employment. The first meeting took
place in Brussels on March 1 and didn’t get good reviews from summit
critics in the European media.
Perhaps that’s why the employment summit, which is due to be held in
Prague next month, will be a much scaled-down event – heads of state
and government won’t attend. Topolanek’s status as a lame-duck leader
who lashes out undiplomatically at US economic policies doesn’t help,
either.
Meanwhile, there are doubts about another summit pencilled in for
Prague on May 7 to launch the Eastern Partnership, an EU project
to build closer ties with Armenia, Azerbaijan,=2 0Belarus, Georgia,
Moldova and Ukraine. Senior Czech officials have told their EU partners
that the event may be held in Brussels rather than Prague.
Why? No clear explanation has emerged, but again it’s probably
connected to the brittle political situation in the Czech Republic
since the eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus engineered the collapse
of Topolanek’s government.
Summit fever seized the EU during France’s six-month presidency from
July to December last year. More summits were held in those six months
than in any equivalent period of the EU’s history. Arguably, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy was right to convene these summits, because
the matters at issue – the Russia-Georgia war, the global financial
crisis – were momentous indeed. But with the Czech EU presidency,
one gets the impression that they felt a need to emulate Sarkozy’s
hyperactivity rather than appraise the need for extra summits with
a cool head.
In any event, Sweden, which will take over the EU presidency on July 1,
has already made its intentions clear: there’ll be no emergency summits
while Stockholm is in charge unless there is a truly compelling need.
April 2, 2009 2:53pm in Czech Republic, Financial crisis, Foreign
policy, Sarkozy, Sweden | Comment