With central Bratislava in virtual lockdown September 16 leaders from 27 European Union states gathered to discuss the future of the EU in the wake of the Brexit vote. UK Prime Minister Theresa May was a notable absence.
Slovak State Secretary for EU Affairs Ivan Korčok promised a “frank debate” in an interview on the eve of the gathering, and said the meeting was designed to “kick off a deeper reflection process” on the future of the EU. As leaders arrived in town on the evening of September 15, many Bratislava residents had already left town for the weekend, taking advantage of the Our Lady of Sorrows holiday on Thursday to have a four day weekend.
But anticipation across the continent was high as leaders must take on what increasingly seems an existential crisis after the UK public opted to vote out of the EU in a June 23 referendum. Divisions on migration, border security, the Schengen zone and whether a so-called multi-speed Europe, whereby core EU members may pursue further integration with other countries opting for less, have emerged. European Council President Donald Tusk urged leaders to “not let this crisis go to waste” and to use the tensions to reform things for the better.
Read also:
The run up to the meeting was rife with speculation that the Visegrad Four — the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland — would present some alternative vision for the EU. In recent days Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, often backed by Polish government officials, has called for a “counter-revolution” against a Brussels-led agenda. Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has said she advocates reopening and renegotiating some of the EU’s foundational treaties.
And though the V4 presented a common statement that asked for greater power in national parliaments, even before the business end of the summit had begun it was clear that the group had no larger consensus position. When a group of reporters asked Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčak whether his country supported renegotiating key EU treaties, as Szydlo does, his reply was clear.
“No,” he said.
Central European governments do share a general hesitancy to take in asylum seekers fleeing wars in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere. The region has opposed the European Commission’s proposed quota system for redistributing migrants throughout the EU and EC President Jean-Claude Juncker looks to have conceded that this plan will not longer be possible to implement in his State of the Union speech on September 14.
“When it comes to managing the refugee crisis, we have started to see solidarity. I am convinced much more solidarity is needed,” he said. “But I also know that solidarity must be given voluntarily. It must come from the heart. It cannot be forced.”
Juncker presented a timeline for legislation over the next 12 months to leaders Friday. Among the early goals is to make the European border and coast guard fully operational by the end of this year, and to implement a system that records all non-EU citizens as they enter the EU’s external borders.
“Migration as a phenomenon is something on which we need to take a longer view,” Korčok said in a September 14 interview. “The recipe to regain control cannot be limited to relocation.”
Instead, he said Slovakia advocates a plan he called “inclusive solidarity” whereby countries reluctant to take in migrants contribute to EU wide efforts in other ways, like providing additional personnel to external border patrols.
Read also:
The Bratislava summit was repeatedly referred to as an informal summit, as it included just 27 states, and not the UK. Though British voters have opted to leave the EU, the government has yet to trigger Article 50, the official protocol to begin the withdrawal process, and thus remains an EU member. May looks to have an uphill climb in smoothly pulling out with some 44 percent of British exports going elsewhere in the common market.
In leaving the EU without negotiating some sort of new free trade pact, the UK would encounter significant taxes and levies on its goods, likely making them uncompetitive. “We really don’t know what the UK wants,” Korčok said of the state of affairs. “The internal market is not something which is a la carte.”
Big changes to the EU are almost certainly coming, but few were immediately apparent at the Bratislava summit, which looked a beginning more than an end.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel entering an election year, major reforms look unlikely until German voters take to the polls next fall. Voters in the Czech Republic, France and The Netherlands also cast ballots next year and with populist parties polling strongly in all three, the next German chancellor could be looking at a very different landscape by then.
Thank you for being our subscriber. Your subscription helps us to bring news about Slovakia, in English, you can trust.
16. Sep 2016 at 14:36 | Benjamin Cunningham
