Refugee Crisis Tops Agenda at EU Summit

European Union leaders have gathered in Slovakia's capital Bratislava for a summit that some have described as a crisis meeting.

The gathering was called by the Slovak government following the UK's Brexit vote to leave the EU.

Central European countries have taken the opportunity to raise objections to a plan to force them to house asylum seekers and refugees against their wishes.

Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports from Bratislava.

Barack Obama's First Visit to Brussels to Cost Belgium More Than €10m

Belgium mobilising 350 police and military motorbikes to
secure the president's routes to EU and Nato summits.

THE GUARDIAN: Obama will arrive with 900-strong entourage, including 45 vehicles and three planes, and attend EU and Nato summits

As Belgium's capital and host to the EU and Nato, Brussels is used to deploying heavy security when big names pop by. But US President Barack Obama's visit on Tuesday will strain the city like never before with €10m ($10.4m, £8.4m) of Belgian money being spent to cover his 24 hours in the country.

The president will arrive on Tuesday night with a 900-strong entourage, including 45 vehicles and three cargo planes. Advance security teams orchestrating every last detail have combed Brussels already, checking the sewers and the major hospitals, while American military helicopters were last week given the green light for overflights. The city hosts at least four EU summits a year, with each of these gatherings costing €500,000 in extra police, military and transport expenses. "But this time round, you can multiply that figure by 20," said Brussels mayor, Yvan Mayeur. » | Leo Cendrowicz in Brussels | Monday, March 24, 2014

Spying Row: Merkel Urges US to Restore Trust at EU Summit

BBC: Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has said it is "really not on" for friends to spy on each other, referring to alleged US snooping on her phone calls.

On arrival at an EU summit in Brussels Mrs Merkel said "we need trust between allies and partners, and such trust needs to be restored".

She said she had given that message to US President Barack Obama when they spoke on Wednesday.

Other EU leaders also voiced concern about the scale of US surveillance.

The spying row threatens to overshadow EU talks on economic growth and migration to the EU. Mrs Merkel has demanded a "complete explanation" of the claims, which came out in the German media.

She grew up in former communist East Germany, where secret police surveillance was pervasive.

Her delegation in Brussels confirmed she had met briefly to discuss the issue with France's President Francois Hollande, who has expressed alarm at reports that millions of French calls have been monitored by the US.

There is concern that the furore could jeopardise EU-US talks on reaching a major free trade deal. The head of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), Sigmar Gabriel, said such a deal was hard to imagine if the US had infringed citizens' privacy. The SPD is in coalition talks with Chancellor Merkel. (+ video) » | Thursday, October 24, 2013

France Dominates EU Summit: Hollande Steals the Show from Merkel

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: French President François Hollande managed to set the tone at his first EU summit with his proposal for euro bonds. It was the first such meeting in years that was not dominated by Chancellor Merkel. Hollande wanted to send the message that France will be more assertive in the future.

The air was stuffy in the French press room of the European Council building, which was crowded with journalists. Everyone wanted to see the new French president during his first press conference after a European Union summit. Shortly after 1 o'clock on Thursday morning, François Hollande held court just as his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, once had, explaining his "vision for growth" for nearly an hour.

In the room next door was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In front of her were just a few rows of chairs and some cameras, and the room was half empty. She had decided not to hold a full press conference. Instead, she gave a brief statement, answered two questions and left after five minutes. She apparently knew that she didn't have much of a chance against the appeal of her new French counterpart. It almost seemed as if she was happy to concede the stage to Hollande without a fight.

The parallel appearances in Brussels in the early hours of Thursday had symbolic value. It was the first EU summit in years which was not dominated by Merkel. Instead, Hollande set the tone at the informal dinner attended by the leaders of the 27 EU member states, even if he only spoke briefly himself and showed surprise at the lengthy comments of some of his colleagues. » | Carsten Volkery in Brussels | Thursday, May 24, 2012

EU 26 Fight to Stop Pact Unravelling
THE INDEPENDENT: Several non-eurozone nations having doubts about 'fiscal compact', while Sarkozy inflames divisions with attack on 'kid' Cameron

Hopes of an early end to the eurozone's troubles were fading yesterday as Nicolas Sarkozy launched a personal attack on David Cameron amid growing signs that last week's agreement struck by the other 26 European Union countries without Britain is fraying at the edges.


Blaming the Prime Minister for the collapse of the Brussels summit, the French President told his MPs: "Cameron behaved like a stubborn kid, with only one objective: protecting the City [of London], which wants to carry on behaving like an off-shore tax haven. No other country supported him, which is what you call a clear political defeat." » | Andrew Grice, John Lichfield, Ben Chu | Thursday, December 15, 2011

Coalition at Odds as Nick Clegg Snubs David Cameron
Nick Clegg has laid bare the Coalition’s rift over Europe by refusing to even attend Parliament as David Cameron briefed MPs about his decision to reject the new European treaty.

Read article here | James Kirkup, Deputy Political Editor | Monday, December 12, 2011

The Political and Personal Failings of David Cameron
THE OBSERVER – EDITORIAL: The prime minister's catastrophic performance has left Britain isolated and impotent

Show some bulldog spirit in Brussels, urged one Eurosceptic Tory MP at prime minister's questions last Wednesday. "I will," replied David Cameron. He knew already from his diplomats that nobody at last week's historic summit was likely to offer him the opt-out for financial services regulation that he needed in order to be able to steer new EU legislation aimed at easing the eurozone crisis through the Commons. Without some figleaf that allowed him to claim triumph over the "technocrats", he felt he had no option but to exercise the veto. The alternative would have been a referendum on our relationship with Europe, which in turn would have spelled the collapse of the coalition, and an election before the key constituency boundary changes had been made – and against a background of rising unemployment and painful spending cuts.

The party interest was clear. Faced with a choice between doing the right thing for Britain and Europe – supporting the best designed policy possible within the best possible framework to save the euro – and the right thing for his party, the prime minister unhesitatingly plumped for the soft option. He could expect the first round of newspaper headlines to echo the inane call to show bulldog spirit and they duly delivered. Britain stands alone, they proclaimed. In an increasingly globalised, connected and mobile world, being alone, on an island, is suddenly a good place to be. "No man is an island," John Donne wrote. Try telling that to the rump of Conservative MPs who steered Cameron towards this lonely place.

But what was Britain standing alone against. Why [What] did it show its bulldog spirit for? The list of demands to protect Britain's financial services industry from the Brussels "diktat" was phony. A financial transactions tax can only be levied by unanimity, so there was no threat to British interests. There was no EU proposal to limit the amount of bank capital requirements, as has been claimed in justification for the veto, which might have prevented the implantation of the Vickers proposals, which, in any case, Downing Street has been dragging its feet over.

The rest of the British demands – trying to limit second order regulatory proposals in financial services at some time in the future – were trivial. Our financial services industry employs around a million people; probably 10,000 to 20,000 of them might have been affected by possible EU regulatory proposals over the next 10 years – and those largely confined to hedge funds and trading desks of investment banks. This is a tiny interest to be heralded as a major national priority, one for which our relations with Europe are now jeopardised.

Cameron used the nuclear weapon of a treaty veto to combat a non[-]existent threat. The bulldog bared its teeth and Europe turned its back in disdain. They shrugged and got to work. A toothless bulldog has roared off into the wilderness – powerless, isolated, pointless. This must be one of the most reckless positions any British government has adopted in an international forum in recent history. » | Editorial | Sunday, December 11, 2011

'As an Act of Crass Stupidity, This Has Rarely Been Equalled'
THE OBSERVER: David Cameron has made a crucial misjudgment, simply to appease the City and his own jingoistic rightwingers

The Tories are one of the world's most enduring political parties. But this long life is built on its cultural attractiveness to parts of the English middle class, especially in the home counties, rather than on its political judgments, which have, over the centuries, been almost continuously wrong, especially in foreign policy.

It was wrong to resist revolutions in France and the US; wrong to go slow over abolishing the slave trade; wrong to champion the Corn Laws; wrong to embrace appeasement in the 1930s; wrong to contest the decolonisation of India. The British right's instincts – jingoistic, imperialistic, anti-progressive and isolationist – have consistently led this country into calamities. Today, once again, the Conservative right, indulging its atavistic instincts and egged on by a no less atavistic right-of-centre press, is landing the country in the soup. » | Will Hutton | Sunday, December 11, 2011

Now It's Three-speed Europe. And We're Left on the Hard Shoulder

THE OBSERVER: This abject defeat for British diplomacy is the more striking because Mr Cameron's demands were quite modest

Veto is a powerful word. It sounds presidential. It smacks of decisiveness. It rings with defiance. So in every interview he has given since the Brussels summit, David Cameron has boasted of wielding "the veto". For a day or two, it might just gull the more simple-minded Eurosceptics in his party that their prime minister did something tremendously strong when he left himself and his country in a minority of one.

Yet in all the dictionaries that I am familiar with, "to veto" is to prevent something from happening. While it is technically true that he "vetoed" an EU-wide treaty, the prime minister did not actually stop anything meaningful at all. The only thing he has blocked is British influence over negotiations vital to this country's future.

The rest of the European Union simply shrugged at his "veto" and will now proceed to try to fashion a new regime for the eurozone without a British voice in the room. The prime minister's agenda is left in shreds. He did not get the protocol he wanted to exempt the UK from European regulation of financial services and Britain's exclusion from the negotiations means that he is now even less likely to secure one in the future. He may get a hero's welcome from some of the Tory Eurosceptics who are exulting in Britain's isolation and celebrating this as the most magnificent performance since Margaret Thatcher wielded the handbag. But that is likely to prove to be very short-lived. They forget that Mrs T never made the mistake of leaving an empty chair where Britain ought to be sitting. Once their initial euphoria has worn off, Tory sceptics will discover that this outcome does not advance their ambition to repatriate powers from Brussels – it has made it even harder to achieve.

This abject defeat for British diplomacy, arguably the worst reverse in many decades, is the more striking because what he sought in Brussels was not that extravagant. He did not go to the summit – as some of the frothier sceptics in his party had been demanding – seeking the immediate and unconditional return of a fistful of powers. He argued merely to be allowed to hold on to some rights that Britain already has. The British demands were – at least from a British perspective – really very modest. One cabinet minister describes them as not much more than "a fig leaf" so that the prime minister wouldn't be left naked before his Eurosceptic backbenchers. » | Andrew Rawnsley | Sunday, December 11, 2011

Paddy Ashdown: We Have Tipped 38 Years of Foreign Policy Down the Drain
THE GUARDIAN: David Cameron has isolated us in Europe and diminished us in Washington's eyes

When Hugh Gaitskell sat down after making his "end of a thousand years of history" speech against joining Europe at the Labour conference of 1962, he turned to his wife and said: "Look how many are clapping, dear!" She replied: "Yes, dear. But it's the wrong people who are clapping."

This weekend, it's the Eurosceptics who are clapping. Many British newspapers are clapping Mr Cameron for "standing up for Britain" – at last. French ones are clapping M Sarkozy for sticking it up "la perfide Albion" – at last. Those who see Britain as Norway without the oil or Switzerland with nuclear weapons are clapping. But those of us who believe our island's greatness has been about taking the risks of engagement rather than the false security of isolation, feel bereft, sad and depressed.

It wasn't because Mr Cameron's demands were immodest that we are here: they had been negotiated down within the coalition to very little indeed (and preceded by dozens of smoothing European calls from Nick Clegg). Almost nothing was unique for Britain except the right to have stronger regulation for the City.

Mr Cameron's "asks" were rejected, not because they were too great – but because it was he who made them. No other British prime minister of recent years would have had difficulty getting this package through. This was Gallic pay-back time for all that unwise Cameron lecturing – and sometimes worse – from the sidelines these last months. I suspect that if he had asked for a cup of tea, Sarkozy would not have lost the opportunity to refuse it. Not a statesmanlike reaction from Sarkozy to be sure; but a human one.

Beneath the tragedy of last Thursday night, lies a deeper and more disturbing fact than Sarkozy's pique. Long years of anti-European prejudice from the Tory Eurosceptics, laced with downright insults from their supporting press, have now generated a growing anti-British prejudice in many European capitals, not just Paris. » | Paddy Ashdown | Saturday, December 10, 2011

EU Treaty: Britain Now Faces a Europe That Is Becoming Hostile

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Britain faces a wave of hostile legislation battered through the European Union by a new "Euro-Plus" bloc dominated by France and Germany as senior figures call for the British to be driven out of Europe.

David Cameron's refusal to unconditionally agree to a eurozone "stability union" treaty has polarised relations between Britain and EU at a time when the economic crisis has sharpened European power struggles.

As attitudes harden, senior European politicians and officials are warning that the Prime Minister's stand will have severe consequences for Britain.

Martin Schulz, the German MEP who will become the president of the European Parliament early next year, predicted that Britain could be forced to quit the EU.

"I doubt in the long term whether Britain will stay in the EU," he said.

"The EU can, if necessary, do without Britain, but Britain would have more difficulty without the EU."

In a sign that Anglo-German relations are at a new low, the point was echoed by Gunther Krichbaum, the chairman of the Bundestag's powerful EU committee, a political ally of Angela Merkel.

"The Treaty of Lisbon explicitly opens the possibility of a country's withdrawal," he said. "The British must now decide whether they are for or against Europe."

Der Spiegel predicted that as British applause died away, Mr Cameron would quickly be put to the test as the EU bit back. "He has completely isolated his country on the European stage - and many in his country applaud him for it. But he will soon have to prove that London still has clout in the EU," the popular magazine warned.

A headline in the establishment French newspaper Le Monde warned that a "27-member Europe is finished" after Mr Cameron's veto of a new EU treaty to fix the eurozone debt crisis.

The newspaper called the decision "a choice with major consequences, that will bring about the emergence of a two-speed Europe, from which the UK may be increasingly excluded by core eurozone countries guided for better or for worse by Germany and France," [sic]

Le Figaro, the newspaper closest to Nicolas Sarkozy, trumpeted a "new era of isolation" for Britain. Its website poll asking "does the UK still have a place in Europe?" quickly attracted 40,000 respondents and 81 per cent answered "Non".

Elmar Brok, a senior German Christian Democrat MEP close to Chancellor Merkel, said the EU "must now marginalise Britain, so that the country comes to feel its loss of influence". Read on and comment » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Saturday, December 10, 2011

My comment:

I can't say I'm surprised by the hostility. Britain deserves it. Cameron especially. He has behaved like a spoilt child in a party. Maybe he has done wonders for his rich City friends, but he has done absolutely nothing for the British people.

It seems that Cameron's expensive, élitist education has done absolutely nothing for his understanding of European politics. He is a nobody now on the international political scene. He may well soon be a has-been, too.

He will come to regret this foolish decision. Unfortunately, the people of Britain will have to pay the highest price for his petulance. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Angela Merkel: 'I Don't Believe David Cameron Was Ever with Us at the Table'
THE GUARDIAN: The Germans and French were ready to accommodate Britain's difficulties but were not prepared to write them into a new treaty

"I have not and have no plans to attend any wife swapping parties," David Cameron said in Brussels shortly before he flew back to Britain, in one of the more startling statements by a British prime minister at an European summit.

His jovial remark stemmed from reports that a French official had said late on Thursday that Britain's attempts to secure concessions in negotiations about the euro were akin to a man going to a wife swapping party without his wife (it turned out that the actual French quote was fruitier).

There was some method to it, designed as it was to show that the prime minister is not alarmed by warnings from across the EU that he has marginalised Britain after vetoing a revision of the Lisbon treaty, paving the way for virtually every other EU member state to agree to a treaty outside the architecture of the EU to underpin tough new rules for the eurozone.

The French briefing illustrated that France had detected even before the summit had started that Cameron was isolated. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, drove this point home during nearly 10 hours of negotiations through Thursday night and into Friday morning. By 5am, when Sarkozy strode out of the summit room to declare that Britain had blocked a revision of the Lisbon treaty, France had taken a major step towards one of its long-standing strategic goals – the creation of a "two speed" Europe in which France and Germany surge ahead, leaving Britain to bring up the rear.

The reaction was swift and cutting. One Brussels veteran said: "I have always felt that the UK will just stumble out of the EU. This confirms that view. We are reaping the wind of 30 years of vitriolic UK press coverage." » | Nicholas Watt and Ian Traynor in Brussels | Friday, December 09, 2011

No Referenda for the Europeans: Such is European Democracy!

Photo of Nicolas Sarkozy courtesy of SpiegelOnline International

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: All of Europe's internal divisions were revealed at the Brussels summit. Once again, selfish national interests were promoted with tricks, threats and embarrassing haggling. Nevertheless, the result is a step forward for the European Union.

Of course, in the end there were only winners. Angela Merkel, Germany's new superwoman, chancellor in Berlin and, as a side-line, Europe's savior, summed up. She said, "everything that we wanted was achieved." France's President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that it was "very good news for Europe and for France: Things have been taken care of." Of course he had played a big part in it. As had British Prime Minister Tony Blair and many others.

Even Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, who had continuously threatened to torpedo the European Union summit, saw himself as a winner too. The solution that had been found for the EU Council voting system was "more favorable for Poland than the square root" -- a system the ruling Kaczynski twins had said they were willing to die for prior to the Brussels summit. The Fresh Impetus that Europe Desperately Needs (more) By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp in Brussels

Mark Alexander

Sarkonomics & the Sleight of Hand
TIMESONLINE: President Sarkozy’s sleight of hand in removing one of the European Union’s key objectives almost slipped through the final meeting of the 27 nations’ top diplomats preparing for the Brussels summit.

The so-called sherpas took five hours on Tuesday night to go through the draft German proposals line by line. It was a Hungarian diplomat who saw that something was missing.

The failed EU constitution proposed that the EU shall have “an internal market where competition is free and undistorted”. The phrase was included to make free competition one of the objectives of the EU, upgrading its status from the Treaty of Rome, where it features as a sub-clause.

Minutes from Tuesday’s meeting seen by The Times show that, near the mid-point of the discussions, the Hungarians drew attention to the redrafted statement. It included commitment to the internal market but omitted the phrase “where competition is free and undistorted”. Sarkozy secretly tried to rewrite rules on Europe: Germans were persuaded to slant statement in favour of protectionism (more) By David Charter and Charles Bremner

Mark Alexander

The Astonishing Demands of Poland
TIMESONLINE: Desperate attempts to forge a deal on the future of Europe were overshadowed last night by an astonishing demand for the voting system to reflect Polish population losses caused by the Nazi invasion in 1939.

Polish leaders said the proposed EU voting formula, based on population, disadvantaged their country because it had still to recover from the millions lost during the Second World War.

The latest intervention from Poland, regarded with Britain as the main obstacle to a deal tonight in Brussels, was regarded as a move to add to pressure on Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who is anxious to crown her country’s presidency of the EU with an agreement she can sell at home. Poles demand more EU votes to compensate for war deaths (more) By Philip Webster and David Charter in Brussels

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
Poland Rejects Compromise Proposal By Severin Weiland

LE FIGARO:
Grand marchandage autour du "traité réformateur" européen Par Alexandrine Bouilhet

Mark Alexander