A summit united in divergence

Last week’s (14 December) EU summit was a strange affair. Presidents and prime ministers queued up to praise the EU for maintaining its unity on tricky issues ranging from Kosovo to the future of the Union and enlargement. The summit managed to achieve enough consensus to get agreement on a number of important decisions, such as sending a civilian mission to maintain stability in Kosovo, but the united public front obscured a sweep of underlying differences.

On Kosovo, the EU agreed to dispatch a mission of around 1,800 personnel, mainly police, to ensure the rule of law in Kosovo once the United Nations mission withdraws next year. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the EU had "safeguarded its unity" on Kosovo even though the precise details of the mission will only be finalised at the end of January. Getting the green light for the mission was an achievement because of fears that Cyprus might block it - such missions need to be approved by unanimity - because it objects to unilateral declarations of independence which could be exploited by the Turkish part of Cyprus.

To assuage Nicosia, EU leaders made a statement saying that the status of Kosovo "constitutes a sui generis case that does not set any precedent". But there is no reference to Kosovo’s impending declaration of independence which Sarkozy called "inevitable" and which is expected in February after the second round of presidential elections in Serbia.

While the UK, France, Germany and Italy are likely to recognise Kosovo immediately, Cyprus, Romania and possibly Slovakia will not do so.

EU leaders were also at pains to ensure that accommodating Kosovo’s desire for independence should not lead to Serbia moving further away from the EU. Sarkozy hinted strongly that France would not insist on "full co-operation" with the UN court for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, which is generally understood to mean handing over Serb General Ratko Mladic´ and Radovan Karadzic´ to the court.

"Let’s not confuse the hunt for war criminals or suspects as such with the possibility for a country to join the EU," Sarkozy said at a press conference after the summit.

Italy and to some extent Germany favour weakening the requirement on co-operation as a way of maintaining incentives for the Serbs to move closer to the Union.

EU leaders agreed a joint statement, saying that Serbia’s "progress on the road towards the EU, including candidate status, can be accelerated", provided that the country met the necessary conditions. The Dutch government wanted this language toned down, arguing that it risked weakening the link between Serbia helping to catch war criminals and the status of EU candidate country.

Here again the Union’s fragile consensus on how to deal with Serbia and the fall-out from the Kosovo situation will be strongly tested in the year ahead.

EU leaders were less successful in concealing their differences on the proposed reflection group on the future of Europe. They agreed on a president, former Spanish Socialist prime minister Felipe González and two vice-presidents, former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila.

The group will not look at institutional issues, current policies or the EU’s finances and will report back to EU leaders in June 2010 on challenges for the Union in 2020-30. It is supposed to focus on economic performance and competitiveness, sustainable development, global stability, migration, energy and climate change and the fight against global insecurity, international crime and terrorism.

But the idea for the group came initially from Sarkozy who wanted a body to look at the limits to the enlargement of the EU. He threatened to veto any further negotiations on membership with Turkey before the group was agreed. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was adamant that the committee would not look at enlargement and Turkey. But in a briefing room next door, Sarkozy told journalists that the group should consider whether the EU needed a "new European dream". This dream would, he said, "inevitably involve the question of frontiers because the more you enlarge Europe, you have to ask the question if there is a contradiction between integration and enlargement".

The results of EU summits are the outcome of finely judged diplomatic negotiation where deliberate ambiguity smoothes the way to the maximum possible consensus. Yet last week’s summit, despite the main decisions of some of the most pressing issues, left a particular sense of unease that differences and divergences which had been papered over will only emerge more virulently in the months and years ahead.

Following a suggestion from the UK at the summit in Lisbon in October, EU leaders agreed a declaration on globalisation. This states that "greater trade flows and economic growth have increased prosperity, transforming the lifestyles of Europe’s citizens and lifting millions worldwide out of poverty. But [it] also confronts it with new economic, social, environmental, energy and security challenges". It adds that while "the Union has always promoted free trade and openness as a means to foster growth, employment and development", it will "press for increasingly open markets which should lead to reciprocal benefits" and "our partners must also demonstrate openness, on the basis of internationally agreed rules, in particular as concerns fair competition and the protection of intellectual property rights".

Freedom, security and justice

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso made a special presentation to EU leaders on the need for a common EU migration policy, asking for support on a range of initiatives including the blue card scheme for admitting skilled migrants. EU leaders agreed that a comprehensive migration policy was a "fundamental priority" and stressed the need for renewed political commitment. They endorsed a range of measures and actions related to migration, stressing the link between migration and development and its contribution to economic and job growth. They agreed to work on measures to tackle undeclared work and illegal employment, strengthening of external borders, common standards for returns policy, a common EU asylum system and better co-ordination between migration and integration policies. They stressed the need for progress on setting up Europol and a directive on criminal sanctions for breaches of environmental law. Leaders pointed out to the need to work on preventing radicalisation and recruitment to terrorism ahead of a Commission communication on best practices in countering violent radicalisation due in 2008.

Ernest-Antoine Seillière, president of BusinessEurope, and Maria Helena André, deputy secretary-general of trade union federation ETUC exchanged views with EU leaders on principles for applying ‘flexicurity’ in member states - a series of labour market reforms combining flexibility for employers with security for workers. Leaders welcomed the agreement reached on flexicurity by the social partners and endorsed by employment and social affairs ministers on 5-6 December.

European security strategy

Following a suggestion by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, EU leaders asked Javier Solana, the Union’s foreign policy chief, to examine how the European Security Strategy, drawn up in 2003, has been implemented, suggest ways to improve its implementation and new elements to complement it. Solana’s findings are expected to be endorsed at the European Council in December 2008.

Last week’s (14 December) EU summit was a strange affair. Presidents and prime ministers queued up to praise the EU for maintaining its unity on tricky issues ranging from Kosovo to the future of the Union and enlargement. The summit managed to achieve enough consensus to get agreement on a number of important decisions, such as sending a civilian mission to maintain stability in Kosovo, but the united public front obscured a sweep of underlying differences.

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