Tuesday

30th May 2023

Brown and Merkel in talks

  • Ms Merkel cajoled leaders into accepting a new look treaty when she headed the EU earlier this year (Photo: German EU presidency)

German chancellor Angela Merkel will meet her UK counterpart Gordon Brown in London today (22 August) amid speculation about whether the EU treaty will be on the agenda.

It is Ms Merkel's first trip to the UK since Mr Brown took over as prime minister in June.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

A Downing Street spokeswoman told the BBC that the talks would probably focus on "international issues" and refused to say whether Europe would be discussed.

But she said "they will discuss the key issues facing them both."

The talks between the two come as Mr Brown is facing increased calls for a referendum on the next EU treaty by the opposition Conservatives.

The Conservatives argue that the treaty, set to be finalised by the end of the year, is similar to the rejected EU constitution.

The Labour government had promised to hold a referendum on the constitution.

Adding more pressure to Mr Brown this week, a recent ICM poll for the Daily Mail suggested that 82% of voters in the UK want a poll on the treaty.

For her part, Ms Merkel is one of the key reasons there is a proposed new Reform Treaty to replace the constitution, given the thumbs down by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

Germany was in charge of the EU for the first half of this year and the chancellor used the time to cajole other leaders into accepting an outline for a new treaty.

The treaty contains several of the innovations of the constitution but has introduced opt-outs in key areas for the UK.

It has also dropped references to symbolic statehood issues such as the anthem and the flag.

The resulting treaty is an awkward compromise that keeps enough of the original so as not to upset those member states that had already ratified the treaty but allowed France's Nicolas Sarkozy to say that his country will go through parliamentary ratification rather than opting for a public poll.

Ireland is the only country that has definitely said it will have a referendum. However, if Britain follows suits it will probably mean that others will also be politically pushed to take the referendum route.

This would likely upset the careful timetable, first outlined by Ms Merkel, that would see the new treaty in place by mid-2009.

MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024

"This will be the first time a member state that is under the Article 7 procedure will take over the rotating presidency of the council," French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the key lawmaker on Hungary, warned.

European Parliament scales back luxury MEP pension fund

The European Parliament's Bureau, a political body composed of the president and its vice-presidents, decided to slash payouts from the fund by 50 percent, freeze automatic indexations, and increase the pension age from 65 to 67.

WhoisWho? Calls mount to bring back EU directory

NGOs and lobbyists slammed the EU commission for removing contact details of non-managerial staff from its public register, arguing that the institution is now less transparent.

Exclusive

MEP luxury pension held corporate assets in tax havens

While the European Parliament was demanding a clamp down on tax havens, many of its own MEPs were using their monthly office allowances to finance a luxury pension scheme that held corporate assets in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and elsewhere.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

Latest News

  1. EU to blacklist nine Russians over jailing of dissident
  2. Russia-Ukraine relations the Year After the war
  3. Why creating a new legal class of 'climate refugees' is a bad idea
  4. Equatorial Guinea: a 'tough nut' for the EU
  5. New EU ethics body and Moldova conference This WEEK
  6. How the EU's money for waste went to waste in Lebanon
  7. EU criminal complicity in Libya needs recognition, says expert
  8. Europe's missing mails

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us