5 takeaways from EU’s leadership failure summit
Here are five takeaways from the latest EU summit, which ended on Friday without an agreement on who will fill the bloc’s top jobs.
1. The great big, secret, highly democratic backroom deal
By law, choosing the next roster of senior EU leaders is a thoroughly democratic process: The 28 duly elected heads of state and government on the European Council choose a candidate by a reinforced qualified majority vote, meaning their pick must be supported by 21 of 28 members countries that represent at least 65 percent of the EU’s population. That candidate must then be confirmed by a majority of the 751 members of the European Parliament, who are elected in the largest election process on earth outside India.
By tradition, choosing the next roster of senior EU leaders is also a highly secretive backroom deal, as the European Council demonstrated Thursday night when leaders debated how to fill the bloc’s senior positions during a closed-door dinner that stretched well past midnight in a room where cellphone signals were jammed and even their closest advisers were barred from entering.
This complex dual reality — call it discreet democracy — poses a special challenge for the EU at a time when Euroskeptic populists, including proponents of Brexit, have gained ground by accusing Brussels of usurping the role of national capitals.
Voter turnout in the recent European Parliament election surged above 50 percent for the first time in a quarter-century, in what appeared at least in part to be a mainstream backlash against the populists, and in part a burst of activism by young citizens worried about climate change and other issues.
But this week’s summit, where leaders failed to agree on filling the top EU jobs, is now at risk of alienating some of those same newly motivated voters. Brussels bigwigs, desperate to project a younger, more diverse and inclusive image, once again seemed to be acting as an exclusive, nearly all-male club.
Adding to the shroud of secrecy at the summit, the discussion on top jobs will continue behind closed doors among some EU leaders at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan next week, before they all gather again in Brussels on June 30 to make another attempt at a deal.
European Council President Donald Tusk, who is directing the search effort, defended the confidentiality as necessary and sometimes not even sufficient to keep the talks on a forward track.
“The processes, I think, were pretty transparent,” Tusk said at the summit’s closing news conference. “Sometimes I feel maybe too transparent to be productive. Formally I am the organizer of this process, sometimes what I feel is that the public knows more about the possible candidates and names than me. It means that transparency is on a relatively high standard.”
Tusk said he would continue to talk with members of the Council while simultaneously consulting leaders in Parliament in an effort to secure the so-called double majority required to confirm a new Commission president.
“I think this is the best method to have this parallel process,” Tusk said. “Maybe you are feeling that I am too discreet but the problem is that I have nothing to add to what I said yesterday, not because I have some secrets here but I have nothing new to communicate today.”
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, however, jumped in to use the question to defend the Spitzenkandidat or “lead candidate” system by which he was appointed to the EU’s top post in 2014.
“You are right to say that last time it was more transparent,” Juncker said.
But Tusk quickly noted that this year’s situation is different, a nod to the fact that in 2014 the center-right conservatives and center-left Socialists controlled enough votes to push through a solution. This year the mainstream groups don’t have that power and securing a pro-EU majority in Parliament requires a coalition with the liberals and probably also the Greens.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at his own news conference, said that perhaps one day the EU treaties would be changed to allow direct election of the top EU officials “but those are not our current treaties,” he said, and he defended the discreet democracy approach as essential.
“It’s not a bad rule that we do not air our agreements or disagreements publicly because otherwise it pollutes the discussion, takes it off track from its final objective,” Macron said. “It becomes an issue of egos,” he added, “and people get defensive.”
2. Spitzenkandidaten hit end of campaign trail
Secrecy notwithstanding, there was still some forward motion at the summit, despite the failure of the European Council to coalesce around a leadership package.
The heads of state and government, with a bit of help from leaders of the Socialist and liberal groups in Parliament, effectively eliminated the three Spitzenkandidaten or “lead candidates” for Commission president — German MEP Manfred Weber of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans of the center-left Socialists, and Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager of the centrist-liberals.
After the main discussion on top jobs, some supporters of one or another of the lead candidates were a bit reluctant to concede their demise. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a backer of Weber, for instance, tried to leave open the possibility that there could be a Spitzenkandidat revival if leaders in Parliament cut a deal. But as leaders left Brussels on Friday, it was abundantly clear that such statements were merely an effort to give the lead candidates a gentle let-down.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, one of two negotiators for the Socialists on the top jobs, said he “felt sorry” that Timmermans “has not been able to be the person selected yesterday.” It was a clear concession by Sánchez that the Socialists’ nominee would get no closer to the top job than the conservatives’ Weber. Privately, Sánchez has been laying the ground for weeks for Spain to secure its interests in Brussels in the likely event that European Socialists were denied the top job.
At a news conference, Sánchez said that Timmermans possesses “all the qualifications” and “experience” required for the job. “But politics is such, and therefore you need to live through it,” he said. And while Sánchez said the sSocialists would continue to make a claim on the Commission presidency, he admitted that they could fall short. “If finally it’s not the case, it’s evident that we can have a Commission president from the People’s Party,” he said.
EPP leaders were not so quick to give up on Weber, with party President Joseph Daul even suggesting that Juncker could stay on for months past the official end of his mandate on October 31 — if other parties stubbornly refuse to concede the top job to the conservatives after they won the most seats in the new European Parliament. But Macron and others were brutally dismissive of Weber, who has no experience of senior executive office.
Challenged about his own relative lack of experience before being elected president in 2017, Macron shot back that as a former economy minister he still had more executive credentials than Weber, whose career has been spent largely in the European Parliament. And, more importantly, Macron said he had the added credibility of winning a competitive, direct election in France.
“Indeed, I had little political experience, but unlike Manfred Weber I was a minister,” Macron said. “I ran and I was elected. It is the French people that decides in a sovereign way.”
The elimination of the lead candidates mean the Council now continues its search with a relatively blank slate.
3. Italy’s great big debt and deficit summit
While all of the other EU leaders were intensely engaged in discussions on the top jobs, Italy effectively carried out its own parallel summit dedicated to avoiding a disciplinary procedure for running an excessive deficit. Under such a procedure, the Commission would put Rome’s finances under stricter EU scrutiny and could potentially levy a stiff fine. (Officials acknowledge that fining a country short on cash is a bit of a self-defeating remedy, but note there just aren’t many other mechanisms to enforce the rules.)
Briefings by Italian officials and diplomats during the summit on Thursday and Friday were mainly dedicated to the meetings Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arranged in his bid to avoid the excessive deficit measures.
Rome is desperate to dispel the idea that Italy is isolated and Italian officials were keen to show photographs of Conte fully engaged in conversation with Merkel, Macron and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel at a bar in Brussels, where they gathered for a drink after the leadership discussion ended at roughly 2 a.m. Friday.
On the EU’s top jobs, Italy’s populist government has no candidate and none of the parties in power in Rome will be part of the pro-EU coalition between conservatives, Socialists and liberals expected to form a majority in the European Parliament. Even if the Greens join the coalition in Brussels, Rome would still have no role since the Greens almost don’t exist in Italy.
Put in a weak position by the real threat of the excessive deficit procedure and cut off from the power games of the main political parties in Brussels, Rome wants to keep all doors open — so that it can pursue its own particular goals. Conte, in a closing press conference, offered some positive words about the so-far failed leadership deliberations, calling the Spitzenkandidat process a “criteria to take into account although it cannot be the only one.” And he even put a positive spin on the current stalemate, in which the main political families — the conservatives, Socialists and liberals — seem deadlocked. Conte called that “an opportunity … for Italy because if we applied only the criteria of political belonging, [Italy] is not in the game.”
4. Romania to the rescue?
The summit capped a big week — and a big six months — for Romania, one of the EU’s newest member countries, which found itself catapulted into newfound prominence and is now wrapping up its first-ever presidency of the Council of the European Union.
On Wednesday, the new liberal-centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament elected former Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș as its leader, following a brief but bitter contest. Cioloș won the backing of Macron’s Renaissance delegation after the French president’s first choice for group leader, Nathalie Loiseau, dropped out of the race. While Loiseau’s stumble, after infuriating fellow group members, could have been a major embarrassment for Macron, it is looking more and more like a stroke of luck.
Cioloș, who has strong connections to France, is not only a former prime minister and current MEP but also a former EU agriculture commissioner, with deep experience in Brussels — precisely the sort of experience that Macron and his insurgent La République En Marche party lack.
Indeed it was Cioloș who, along with the new leader of the Socialist group, Spanish MEP Iratxe García, officially broke the news to Weber on Wednesday morning that he would not win the backing of their groups for Commission president.
Then, at the summit, the European Council adopted a new Strategic Agenda for the next five years based largely on a set of priorities first discussed at an informal summit in Sibiu, Romania in May. While leaders failed to reach agreement on one of the most important components — more aggressive efforts to achieve carbon neutrality — the overall agenda was adopted with the customary unanimity.
“The strategic agenda that we have adopted reflects entirely the 10 commitments we agreed upon at the Sibiu Summit,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said at a closing news conference. “The spirit of Sibiu, as I call it. The key aim now is to remain united, determined and effective in our efforts to implement this agenda, and achieve results for all.”
Tusk said the Sibiu summit was a signature moment.
“I met thousands of true Europeans in the streets of Sibiu,” Tusk said. “I was really, really moved … My feeling was that we could touch the essence of Europe in Sibiu.”
“Sometimes it’s more important than our procedures and legislation,” Tusk added. “I will always remember this European Day in Sibiu. It was, for me, the most impressive moment in my political life.”
Not everyone will remember the Romanian presidency quite so positively. The country’s Social Democrat government has been accused by the European Commission of backsliding in efforts to fight endemic corruption. And multiple EU governments publicly criticized Bucharest’s efforts to handle the fraught talks over the bloc’s long-term budget. Some said Romania’s blueprint was not even a basis for discussion.
5. Brexit warning for next British PM
Britain’s Conservative Party can pick a new prime minister but it won’t get a new Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
EU leaders reiterated their unwillingness to renegotiate the Brexit divorce settlement on Friday, using particularly pointed language that was clearly intended to catch the attention of the two finalists for the U.K’s top job — former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his successor in that post, Jeremy Hunt.
Tusk said the EU is looking forward to working closely with a new British prime minister, but he said: “The Withdrawal Agreement is not open for renegotiation.”
Juncker said, “On Brexit there is nothing new. There is nothing new because we repeat unanimously: There will be no renegotiation of the Withdrawal Agreement.”
Lili Bayer and other members of POLITICO‘s summit team contributed reporting.
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