THE WEEK THAT WAS... (Dec.17, 2012)

The final result of the summit of 27 EU leaders last week was clear: no further deepening of the integration in the Eurozone till (maybe) June. The European Parliament, an institution not really connected to the people, was very cross. Especially the odd couple Guy Verhofstadt (leader of the EP Liberals) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (co-leader of the EP Greens). They are expected to aim for a strong cooperation in the next EP elections and it appeared that they couldn’t stand the result of last week's Summit. However, the 27 EU leaders did have different views on how to deepen the integration. Grosso modo, the political discourse was between Germany, The Netherlands and the Nordic states (also known as the net-payers) and, on the other hand, France and its allies - former communist countries such as Poland and Mediterranean member states such as Italy and Spain (aka the net-receivers). An EU-observer summed it up as one side pressing for ‘a big stick with a small carrot versus the other side a big carrot with a small stick’. EU Council President, Herman van Rompuy, told the press ‘we have had a successful few days’; but had to admit that as regards the further integration of the Eurozone ‘he was not tasked to work on it for June’ by his 27 bosses at the Summit.

Conclusion: EU leaders focussed mainly on things that had already been agreed by the EU Finance Ministers: putting Eurozone’s largest banks (not all banks, as the European Commission proposed) under central supervision and, yes, another deal on Greece’s debt and bail out.