In the evening, the heads of state and government debated migration and industrial policy.
The dinner for which the heads of state and government gathered at their special meeting on Thursday evening in the Council building was far less harmonious than the hours before. After the departure of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy from Brussels (page 1), the tone among the 27 on the issue of migration became much harsher.
If you look at the divergent positions of the individual protagonists at the beginning of the summit, it is no wonder that the debate dragged on into the late evening hours: upon his arrival in Brussels, Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer renewed his call for EU financing of fences on the EU -external borders and is supported in this endeavor by some partner countries. Xavier Bettel is not one of them: “It would be a shame if a wall were built in Europe with the European stars on it,” said the Luxembourg prime minister.
The EU Commission itself had recently emphasized several times that it did not want to make any common money available for the construction of fences; Government members from Germany and France also expressed reservations. Italy, on the other hand, has other concerns: Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been ending up in the Mediterranean country for years, which is why Rome is making the Council advocate a fair distribution of those in need of protection.
A total of 924,000 asylum applications were made in the Union last year – more than at any time since the great flight years of 2015 and 2016. A good part of this is likely to relate to so-called secondary migration – i.e. people who have been in another EU country (possibly for a long time) travel on after a while and apply for asylum elsewhere.
The Swedish Presidency, led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the conservative “Moderate Coalition Party”, put more efficient returns high on the agenda – considering that only a fifth of those who receive a negative asylum decision go from the EU to their home countries be brought back is also an urgent issue. As stated in the conclusions of the special summit, the EU wants to make visa policy simplifications dependent on whether or not a third country cooperates in the repatriation of its citizens. Trade barriers such as higher tariffs and a cut in financial aid are also on the table.
Response to US subsidy package
Less contrary to the migration debate – albeit also controversial – at yesterday’s special meeting was the EU’s response to the US subsidy package Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a climate protection and social package worth almost 400 billion euros agreed in Washington last August , to put it simply, lowers taxes for companies that invest in clean energy and use products “Made in the USA” – such as electric cars with batteries from the States.
Last week, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the relevant strategy of her authority under the title “Green Deal Industrial Plan”, with the help of which the European business location should remain competitive in the global race. There are debates about the extent to which fresh money – for example in the form of joint debts – should be used. In June, the Commission plans to present a proposal for a “European Sovereignty Fund” to help the Union “stay ahead of the curve in critical and emerging technologies relevant to the green and digital transition, from computing technologies, including microelectronics, quantum computers and… artificial intelligence, to biotechnology.”
How this fund is to be fed has not yet been sufficiently clarified. There is talk of unused money in the Corona reconstruction fund as well as “fresh money” – for example in the form of joint debts. Here, however, Germany is likely to raise objections, whose Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has repeatedly warned of an “unchecked subsidy race with the USA”.
Austria, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Slovakia also do not want to risk European competitiveness being based on long-term – and not specific – state aid: This, as the finance ministers of the seven EU countries recently stated in a letter, could lead to states trying to outbid each other, which is not acceptable for individuals.
“Fit for digital transition”
In the joint summit declaration, the heads of state and government now commit to strengthening “strategic sovereignty” and “making the economic, industrial and technological basis fit for the green and digital transition” in order to remain competitive and productive in the long term.