The EU Summit: What are Europe’s demands?
The EU summit took place on Friday, and covered a wide range of pressing issues. Some of these include, economics, security, migration and Brexit. However, it is coming to light that different countries may have different priorities and aren’t all focused on getting the same result. Whether or not Brexit is at the forefronts of people mind is a big question on the lips of many.
Both Angela Merkel and Theresa May have been extensively and heavily criticized for their practices, decisions and virtually any and everything they say. As the summit draws nearer more and more eyes are going to be focused on the pair; and more importantly, over what the hold in their priority list.
It has been guessed that Brexit will be pushed to the back of Angela Merkel’s mind; contrastingly, it will be much the opposite for Theresa May. The German chancellor has little interest in Brexit as a whole, but is dubbed to focus much more on her revised European migration strategy to quote, unquote, ‘save her own political skin’.
If Angela Merkel doesn’t return to German after the summit with a win, strength and numbers on her side there will likely be a rebellion caused by her interior minister and namely also her coalition partner. Already, prior the EU summit, her coalition partner is passing heavy threats Merkel’s way by letting her know that they will unilaterally impose greater migration controls, for the safety of the country and their population, at all German borders as quickly as possible.
Many other political leaders are facing the same scrutiny and pressures over promises that they have made to their respective parliaments and to their country. Everyone is out for something different, yet, not all of those voices will be heard. When speaking about the French government’s priorities in this summit the BBC reported that “In 2015, the former French government promised to take 30,000 refugees from Greece and Italy, but a year later little more than 1,000 had arrived.”
They continued, “and while the French government backs proposals for closed processing centres in front-line states, it does not want to see them on French territory. With all this occupying French minds, there’s little room to devote much attention to Brexit.”.
The outcome of the EU summit will be very telling over where the EU’s overall focus is and where their loyalty lies as to who is able to gain what they request. France are going into the summit headstrong and have stated that they will not accept “cherry-picking” of their policies and demands.
This however, feels like much of a muchness as everyone in a leadership position at this point feels exactly the same way, The results of the EU summit will be very telling and with the types of topics on the tips of people’s tongues, could also mean significant changes for some countries and society as a whole.
