EU leaders gather in Brussels for summit chaired by Czech PM Topolánek

Leaders of the European Union are set to begin a two-day meeting in Brussels aimed at agreeing a strategy for tackling the global economic crisis. The meeting’s being chaired by Czech prime minister Mirek Topolánek in his capacity as president of the European Council, and the Czech Republic is under a lot of pressure to provide leadership at a time when the EU is suffering from falling production and rising unemployment.

Photo: European Commission

The economy is definitely top of the agenda for the Brussels summit. Speaking just this morning, the Czech prime minister was saying his top priority was getting down to action and spending some of the money that European leaders have already pledged to battle the financial crisis. Mr Topolánek said that was much more important than throwing yet more money at the European Union in this time of crisis; he’s ruled out the idea of any further financial injections.

Another really important issue that Mr Topolánek and his team will want to discuss over the next couple of days is how the European Union is going to present a united face at the G20 summit in London in April. He wants to see EU leaders singing from the same hymn sheet, and this is the time to decide on a common strategy for that.

Last but not least, contentiously, there’s a sum of five billion euros which has been allocated to tackling the financial downturn in Europe, and there’s not been any consensus yet whatsoever on how to spend it. The parliament is going into recess soon, there will be European elections, and no-one here in Brussels wants to see that money go unused.

EU leaders will also be talking about energy. One issue is paving the way for a treaty to replace the Kyoto treaty on carbon emissions which will be discussed in Copenhagen at the end of this year. Going into this summit, the Czechs were fairly optimistic, fairly confident that a consensus could be found on a common EU strategy in Copenhagen.

There’s a lot less harmony, however, on diversifying Europe’s energy supplies, a problem that was highlighted by the gas crisis at the start of this year. There are still various mindsets on how best to diversify. The Czechs want support for the planned Nabucco pipeline which would see gas from Central Asia shipped via Turkey, completely bypassing Ukraine and Russia. Germany, however, favours a pipeline called Nordstream, which would bring in Russian gas to Germany, bypassing the Baltic States. These two factions are not yet in agreement as to whether these two pipelines are in competition or whether they could work together.

The agenda also includes discussion of the Lisbon Treaty, although ahead of a second Irish referendum it’s perhaps not as high-priority as was the case in previous summits. Another issue that the Czechs want to discuss in Brussels is the EU’s Eastern Partnership: making travel easier, making trade easier, and increasing dialogue with countries just to the east of the EU, like Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Eastern Partnership will be launched in Prague in May, but preparations for that will be paved over the next couple of days here in Brussels.