EU Council Update: September 2016

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EU COUNCIL UPDATE THE 2016 STATE OF THE [DIS]UNION: VIEW FROM BRUSSELS This year’s State of the Union speech by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was eagerly anticipated, particularly as it followed the UK referendum on EU membership by just a few months. For those who believe big challenges require bold action, Wednesday’s speech was particularly uninspiring. President Juncker acknowledged the Union is facing a major existential crisis. Never before has he “seen such little common ground between Member States. So few areas where they agree to work together”. Making matters worse, for the first time “we are even faced with the unhappy prospect of a member leaving our ranks”. As sad as that prospect may be, President Juncker repeated once more the request for the UK to activate Article 50 “as soon as possible”. During the debate following his speech, President Juncker was adamant that a Switzerland-type agreement is not an option for the UK as “Access [to the single market] will only be given to those that respect the free movement of workers”. UKIP MEP Nigel Farage retorted that if the UK is not granted exemptions in this regard, there will be “no deal” – leading some to wonder how the UK could possibly benefit from leaving the EU without any agreement regarding its future relationship with the EU, including access to the single market. On the state of the Union, President Juncker reviewed progress achieved since last year, highlighting a number of measures adopted to protect EU citizens’ privacy, rights and security. He also proposed a list of actions for the next twelve months to “deliver a better Europe”, including: • I nvesting in job creation to lower current rates of unemployment, including by supporting the free trade agreement with Canada, reviewing the Capital Markets Union, and doubling the financial capacity of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (up to €630 billion by 2022). •R eforming the telecoms markets, by creating a new legal framework to attract and enable investments in connectivity. The Commission proposes to fully deploy 5G across the EU by

2025, and free wireless internet access by 2020. • Reinforcing the EU’s security and defence mechanisms, by introducing a new European Travel Information System to track who will be allowed to travel to the EU, strengthening Europol, and advancing the EU’s defence policy. The largest political groups in the European Parliament welcomed President Juncker’s speech and supported the direction and initiatives proposed. Smaller parties were not as thrilled. Speaking on behalf of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, UK MEP Syed Kamall expressed concern that “project Europe has been set to cruise control and its drivers are unwilling to apply the brakes whilst they ignore the warning lights”. In his view, more European integration will lead to increasingly detached citizens and more calls to leave the Union. European Council President Donald Tusk would probably agree with the latter view. He shared his assessment of the situation in a letter to the heads of state of the 27 Member States who meet in Bratislava today (16 September) to discuss the consequences of Brexit for the EU. Mr. Tusk highlighted the three main challenges EU leaders will need to address as a priority to regain their citizens’ trust and re-build confidence in the European project: migration, terrorism, and globalisation. He believes the best approach to further strengthen the EU, enabling it to effectively address those challenges, is for Member States to work together, rather than giving additional powers to European institutions. Some would say that is exactly what has been tried throughout the last decade, leading to the situation we are in today. Donald Tusk hopes to convince Member States to at least agree on the main challenges and priorities for the EU at 27, and on how to begin addressing them. Most will agree this is an extremely ambitious goal, particularly for a one-day meeting of such historic proportions. As President Juncker highlighted in his speech, Europeans “want more than promises, resolutions and summit conclusions. They have heard and seen these too often”. So let’s hope the Bratislava meeting will not reach uninspiring conclusions, thereby confirming the true state of our disunion.

FURTHER INFORMATION Miguel da Silva Director Edelman Brussels Miguel.Silva@edelman.com +32 25480278 Edelman | Southside | 105 Victoria Street | SW1E 6QT London | www.edelman.co.uk | 0203 047 2000 | @edelmanUK


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