Protectionism debate clouds EU summit
HONOR MAHONY
23.03.2006 @ 14:31 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders will assemble in Brussels this evening (23 March) for their annual spring meeting on the economic state of the union but the gathering risks being soured by recent protectionist moves in some member states.
The problem facing the EU is essentially unchanged since governments gathered for the same meeting one year ago – how to make the EU an effective player in a globalised world.
Little also has changed in the discussion since March last year, but this time round, it has been marked in the run up to the summit by a number of protectionist steps, particularly in France and Spain, both of whom blocked moves by Italian and German companies respectively to take over their national utilities.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, a strong champion of economic liberalism, called the economic nationalism displayed by some member states "absurd".
"No member state, even the biggest can go it alone. Economic nationalism was never a solution and is even less so today", he said on the eve of the summit.
The debate over protectionism threatened to become even more acrimonious when Italy, facing domestic parliamentary elections, tried to get other member states to sign up to an anti-protectionism declaration.
But Rome was rebuffed at the eleventh hour by its liberal colleagues, among them the Netherlands and Finland, as it was felt that signing such a declaration would only once again highlight how divided member states are on key economic issues.
Energy overspill
However, the divisions remain and they threaten to spill over into a key discussion on the EU’s future energy policy.
Spurred into action by a gas supply crisis earlier this year, the bloc is slowly realising that it is at a cross roads when it comes to securing its future energy supplies.
As world resources dwindle, it is finding itself in the uncomfortable situation of having to rely more and more on supplies from Russia, with which it has as many differences as it has issues in common.
The European Commission published a landmark paper on energy earlier this month, but the Spanish and French moves have done little to boost confidence that a common EU energy policy can be formulated quickly.
Madrid and Paris’ moves also give other member states, unsure of how far they want "Brussels" to control energy policy, a convenient umbrella to hide under.
Germany’s Angela Merkel, whose government called the moves "pure protectionism" and who relies so heavily on Russian supplies, is set to open the energy debate.
Don’t forget Lisbon
The main topic of this spring summit is, as usual, the Lisbon economic goals, essentially concerned with opening the last of the union's internal market barriers.
Up for discussion will be member states’ national programmes on how to achieve this as well as the directive on opening the bloc’s services market.
Having caused huge divisions in the EU, with parts of the population fearing too much liberalisation, the services directive has now been watered down by the European Parliament.
Although liberal-minded new member states are not happy with the compromise, several of the bigger states want to push through a political agreement at the summit.
While EU leaders are grappling with economic issues, foreign ministers will this evening tackle enlargement in the face of fatigue in several member states.
