With the bloc buffeted by multiple geopolitical crises, it’s starting to realize that it can’t come to grips with them if it only acts when all 27 member countries agree. From defense to energy to investment, the European Commission, which makes the rules, and national governments, which are supposed to implement them, are finding themselves hamstrung. Meanwhile, businesses talk of being strangled by red tape and high energy costs.
Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland and his wavering on helping Ukraine fend off Russia, combined with China’s strategy of flooding Europe with artificially cheap goods, have provided an impetus to the EU’s most senior decision-makers to finally get moving.
Thursday’s summit of EU leaders — only 15 kilometers from the Dutch city of Maastricht, where one of the most significant treaties underpinning the bloc was signed in 1992 — occasioned some “strategic brainstorming” on how to “promote our prosperity, create high quality jobs and ensure affordability,” European Council President António Costa said.
“Today’s discussion brought a new energy and shared sense of urgency around that objective,” he said.
At their summit back in Brussels next month, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will present what she called a “One Europe, One Market Roadmap and Action Plan” setting out reforms in areas such as reducing administrative burdens and unleashing private and public capital to help European start-ups scale up. Leaders will vote on the plan when they meet again before the summer.
If not all 27 countries agree in some areas, the EU will use what it calls “enhanced cooperation” — smaller groupings of member countries moving faster on policy proposals — which, while it’s been championed by some leaders before, has largely been avoided and labeled as divisive.