It looks as though not only EU finance ministers have a problem after the Greek elections.
EU Council President, Donald Tusk has one too.
While the new Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, was organising his government, Tusk
published an EU statement claiming that all 28 EU-leaders had agreed that Russia
bears responsibility for a rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and
proposing new sanctions against Russia.
But Tsipras’s immediate reaction was
clear ‘…Greece does not consent to this statement’.
He also expressed
‘discontent’ about Tusk’s action in a phone call to EU foreign relations chief
Federica Mogherini.
Why didn’t Tusk take a bit more time for such a charge? Why such a hurry? Was it because he learnt
that the first diplomat the fresh Greek PM met was the Russian ambassador who
brought him Putin’s congratulations?
At any rate, Tusk now has a problem: more
sanctions against Russia need unanimity in the EU Council. The risk for Tusk is
also that other less fanatical member states see their chance and will follow
Greece.
‘Voices’ in Brussels say that maybe Tusk himself
is a problem. On his agenda glitters only one point: more and more sanctions
against Russia.
He behaves like a genuine ‘Cold War-lord’. Since taking office
we have not really heard Tusk talking about other subjects.
Are these voices missing
the calm, intellectual, former EU Council President, Herman van Rompuy?
A tough
guy who understood perfectly that the President of the EU Council
is just the chairman and cannot have his own strong agenda.
Van Rompuy guided
the 28 heads of EU Member States through a very difficult five years,
diplomatically, with practical wisdom and not looking for stardom.
Those were the days…
