“Heads of state and government are right to invest significant time in the unexpected geopolitical crises that have occurred over the course of the last weeks,” said Siegfried Mureșan, the lead lawmaker on the budget from the center-right European People’s Party, from which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and most of the leaders also hail. “However, I believe that as a union we should not spend all of our political time on a single topic at a time and then ignore other subjects which are important but maybe not necessarily urgent.”
Leaders have called on Brussels to help protect consumers and industry from high energy prices resulting from Iran’s blockade of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which has already lasted for six weeks. Oil and gas tankers have been left stranded in the strategic waterway, which links major exporters like Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the global market. Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told POLITICO last month that the conflict risks triggering a “self-inflicted global recession.”
But leaders are wrestling with several different issues all at once and that’s proving tricky. Governments need to make significant progress on the budget before the end of the year, Mureșan said, warning “the Council delaying the process would mean that nothing will be ready … on January 1, 2028,” disrupting planned payments.
On top of that, proposals to boost the EU’s economic competitiveness in the face of stiff trade competition — demanded by capitals in response to sluggish growth — have fallen by the wayside, despite the Commission having done much of the work required to present a “roadmap” setting out next steps.
“The roadmap is technically ready, but capitals aren’t asking to speak about it — they want to talk about a thousand other things like energy and security,” said one of the EU officials involved in the development of the plans, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly. “There are 10 topics on the table and we don’t have time to talk about all of them.”
‘Challenging’ geopolitics
Competitiveness has been forced further up the agenda of the European Council over the past year by leaders concerned the EU is falling behind the U.S. and China, where energy prices for industry are several times lower. It was also the focus of a February summit where they demanded concerted action from the Commission. But it’s no longer their priority.