The 27 heads of state and government from EU countries aim to finalize an agreement on budgetary reforms known as the fiscal compact.
They also are expected to try to move toward agreement on an emergency fund for debt-ridden EU countries, as well as attempting to find ways to jumpstart growth and create jobs as predictions of recession loom over Europe.
Herman Van Ropuy, the EU’s president, opening the summit said that the EU has made “considerable progress, but we are not yet at the end of the road,” adding the summit had to “point the way to more hope.”
But the summit has been overshadowed by a new dispute over how to save Greece from bankruptcy.
German officials over the weekend suggested putting Greece’s budget under EU control — but the suggestion has been ruled out by Athens as a violation of its national sovereignty.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an apparent bid to placate critics, said on January 30 that Europe had to support Greece in implementing promised austerity and reform measures, but added that “all that will work only if Greece and all other states discuss this together.”
Poland has also been critical of the proposed compact.
Speaking in Brussels ahead of the summit, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said decision-making responsibility in the pact was not spread evenly and that non-eurozone countries need a larger voice.
“Poland, as well as many other countries, is ready to take responsibility for the fiscal compact but under one condition: that these countries also will participate in the decision-making process of how this fiscal compact is executed,” Tusk said.
Focus On Growth
Poland is not a member of the eurozone, but agreed at an EU summit in December, along with all other EU members except the United Kingdom, to consider supporting the pact.
The EU summit comes as many fear that Europe is on the verge of another recession, and EU leaders gathering in Brussels have said that spurring growth would be the focus of their talks.
“Everything starts and ends with growth and jobs but [we] also have to understand that each individual member state has to have balanced budgets and it is important for all of us that we all have balanced budgets,” said Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark, which holds the rotating EU presidency.
As EU leaders were arriving in Brussels, Belgium’s three main labor unions launched a strike in an antiausterity protest aimed at their own government and coinciding with the EU gathering.
Leaders had to fly into a military airport some 30 kilometers outside of Brussels as the city’s main airport was shutdown by a 24-hour strike.
Compiled from agency reports
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