08 May 2014

EV: Van Rompuy prepares government leaders for dates with EU's destiny

Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, is urging government leaders to identify the policy priorities of the European Union in the immediate aftermath of the European Parliament elections.

He is convening Member States' leaders for two informal dinners at which he intends to hold big-picture talks about the EU in the next five years, which could inform their choice of a new president of the European Commission and a successor to Van Rompuy.

At their first informal dinner, in Brussels on 27 May, the leaders are supposed to discuss the outcome of elections to the European Parliament on 22-25 May and to give Van Rompuy a mandate for exploratory talks with MEPs on who should be the next president of the European Commission.

The second dinner is to take place on 26 June, in Ypres, in the Belgian province of West Flanders, at the end of a day of commemorations of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. It will be followed by a meeting of the European Council in Brussels, which is being compressed into one day (Friday 27 June), instead of spread over two days as has been the norm.

At the European Council meeting, the Member States' leaders are supposed to decide on their nomination for president of the European Commission, which will be put to the European Parliament for approval. The Council is also supposed to adopt conclusions on the EU's climate and energy agenda and on the broad outlines of a new migration policy, and to discuss the European semester of economic policy co-ordination.

The discussion about the Union's future priorities, which takes place as the EU is preparing to renew its leadership, will stir up debate about whether the Union's Lisbon treaty will have to be revised. A sensitive point is whether the next Commission president should organise the next college of European commissioners on hierarchical lines.

David Cameron, the UK prime minister, has demanded a re-definition of the Union's competences that may or may not require treaty change. It is a matter of dispute whether Cameron's demands could be met within the current treaty set-up. Treaty change might be required for the deepening of the eurozone that many decision-makers believe is necessary to withstand future financial shocks. The UK's priority in any such treaty change is to ensure the integrity of the EU and the equality of all its members, including those that do not use the euro as their currency.

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