Social media, the EU-USA summit & the question who will be important

By chance I saw that there is a Facebook group supporting that the coming EU-USA Summit will not take place in Madrid but in Brussels.

This seems to be part of the power struggle between the institutions after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty that foresees the weakening of the rotating Council presidency in favour of the permanent European Council President Herman van Rompuy.

I agree that a summit in Brussels might be more natural, but why having everything in Brussels - our Union is more diverse than the faceless Eurodistrict!

But there is more story to the EU-USA summit:

The main German online news Spiegel Online also reported yesterday that the summit in Madrid is seeing extreme diplomatic battles over who will shake Obama's hand first - Zapatero or van Rompuy - and who will sit next to the US President during the dinner later on.

According to the news, van Rompuy's team offered to Zapatero that he may have the first handshake while the European Council President will sit on the right side of Obama, Barroso will sit on the left and Zapatero will sit opposite to the US-President, a position without camera exposure.

If anyone from the Council or the Council presidency is reading this: I don't care where the summit is, but this kind of diplomatic bullshit that you spend your time (and thus our money) on is ridiculous!

Update: It seems to be confirmed as it has found its way into national media what Blaat has already written in the comments - that Obama apparently won't come to the summit which isn't much of a summit anymore if the president is missing. And there are sources quoted saying that it was exactly this kind of diplomatic comedy about who has the bigger ... that made the American side decide not to come on highest level.

Alpha.Sources: "The glass is half empty for CEE countries and the EU after the latest summit"

In an amazingly well-written post, Alpha.Sources discusses the outcomes of the EU summit on the economic crisis last weekend.

Claus focusses on the situation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) - thus the eastern EU countries, a category that has recently been discussed in this blog and beyond.

But Alpha.Sources' remark on the issue is the best I have read so far:

I cannot help but feel that pointing towards heterogeneity amongst the CEE is rather like pointing towards heterogeneity in the context of critical patients on an intensive ward. Surely, one patient may be closer to the brink than another but common to all of them is that they are in pretty bad shape.

His overall conclusions on the outcomes of the summit are semi-negative, seeing the glass half-empty instead of half-full:

Ultimately, a much more systemic perspective is needed here and we need to realize that a case by case approach does not work. This does not mean that the CE economies are not different; it merely means that the EU and the Eurozone need to see this as an integral part of the fight to keep the economic edifice from crumbling entirely.

But read the complete post to understand how he gets to that point!

(The text is cross-posted on A Fistful of Euros and Eastern Europe Economy Watch)

CEE countries united for EU rescue plan

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (see the discussion: Is there something like CEE?) in the European Union will have a separate co-ordination meeting ahead of the EU summit on 1 March.

They are afraid to ignored in the possible EU rescue plan, and will try to form a common front against the old and rich(er) EU member states.

I am not sure whether this is a good sign.

It hints to the fact that behind the scenes there is not much unity, that in the administrative and diplomatic levels of the Council member states are bargaining. It is a bad sign, because it means that a unified approach to the financial crisis will not be the result of shared interests but of political games.

It is a bad sign, and I hope it will not get too ugly.


Read also (21 February 2009): Barroso will join the CEE meeting

Sarkozy announces urgent EU summit on Georgia (updated)

The German newspaper website sueddeutsche.de has just announced that French EU-Council President

Nicolas Sarkozy has called for an urgent EU-Summit on Georgia on the 1st of September (that is Monday in one week).

The summit will take place in Brussels as other sources inform.

According to AFP, "French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had warned this week that Sarkozy might convene an emergency EU meeting if Russia failed to pull back its forces from positions in the ex-Soviet republic." Actually, Poland had asked for this already more than two weeks ago.

The last extraordinary urgent European Councils I am aware of where held in February 2003 on Iraque and before on September 11th in 2001.