Garrulous Brussels is not a good place to keep secrets. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to the EU summit on Thursday quickly became the talk of the town.
The Ukrainian President wants to once again appeal to the heads of state and government of the Union for support for his country in the war against Russia. The day before he was on a short visit to Great Britain, which is one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine with money and weapons.
The surprising appearance of Volodymyr Zelenskyy outshines the other two central topics of the meeting, which is not entirely inconvenient for most heads of state and government.
At the beginning of this week, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and his French colleague Bruno Le Maire made their way to the USA, but they returned without any concrete commitments on future market access for European companies.
A European response to the IRA is pending
The background to the talks in Washington was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides for high subsidies and tax credits for US companies.
The problem from a German and European perspective: Much of this aid is linked to the fact that benefiting companies use US products or produce them themselves in the USA – which triggers concerns in the EU about competitive disadvantages.
We will ensure that the supply chain for America begins in America.
Joe BidenUS President
Instead of approaching his two visitors from Europe, US President Joe Biden followed up. “I know I’ve been criticized for it, but I won’t change my mind. We’re going to make sure the supply chain for America starts in America,” Biden said in his State of the Union address before both houses of Congress on Tuesday.
With this, he is once again presenting the European heads of state and government with a fait accompli, and they must continue to work on an answer to the IRA at the EU summit.
Questions of migration are also still unresolved
The situation is also procedural when it comes to migration. In the run-up to the meeting, several states were already pushing for concrete progress in the consultations in order to curb illegal migration, which had risen sharply again in the past year. Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer made himself the group’s spokesman.
On Wednesday he threatened to block the joint final declaration if no concrete agreements on migration issues were reached. “What is finally needed is a clear and unambiguous commitment to strengthening external border protection and using appropriate financial resources from the EU budget for this,” demanded the head of government from Vienna.
Complaints also come from the Netherlands. Its Prime Minister Mark Rutte says his country is overwhelmed with taking in refugees who should not have arrived there. In 2020, the EU Commission presented a “Migration Pact” in which the key issues seemed to be clarified.
For example, more and more tasks are to be carried out in the registration, control and return of migrants at the external borders. At the same time, the asylum seekers should then be fairly distributed among the EU countries.
A communication from the EU Commission now states that the “implementation of the earlier conclusions on a comprehensive migration concept” should be evaluated at the summit in Brussels. However, the evaluation should be devastating, because practically nothing was implemented.
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