The most important keys to the Extraordinary Summit of the European Union

The European Union resumes the extraordinary summit one week after it was postponed because of the new coronavirus protocol. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, was in contact with a positive and had to keep in quarantine forcing a postponement of the urgent community meeting.

Now, all apparently healthy, the Commission leaders have gathered to address the issues that need to be resolved most urgently, such as the complex relations with Turkey and the tension in the eastern Mediterranean, the possibility of issuing new sanctions on Belarus, resolving the Commission's doubts about whether or not to provide budgets for countries that do not comply with the rule of law (Hungary and Poland) and setting up the recovery fund to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus.

The summit will last two days and Germany fears that internal differences will block both the agreement for the European recovery fund and the sanctions for countries that do not comply with the rule of law. Cyprus will not give up until Turkey is sanctioned and is ready to block other measures to put pressure on this issue. Similarly, Hungary and Poland are resisting the majority's desire to link the disbursement of European funds to respect for the rule of law.

It should be recalled that Poland and Hungary were subjected to Article 7 of the Union Treaties because they considered that their national governments violated the rule of law. Last Wednesday the Commission published a report on the rule of law in each of the EU nations, in which it revealed certain criticisms of Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria.

What is Article 7 of the EU Treaties? This article exists to examine and determine whether there is a clear risk of a Member State seriously failing to respect the common values mentioned in Article 2 of the Treaty. Article 7 also provides for special mechanisms with far-reaching sanctions if an EU country fails to respect the fundamental values mentioned.

Poland, five years ago, began a process of amending the Constitutional Court and the system of public prosecutors, which has led to a weakening of judicial independence. On the other hand, Hungary intends to reform the judiciary and increase the persecution of journalists and media. These attitudes, carried out by two extreme right-wing governments, according to the European Commission, "endanger the rule of law" and they have considered sanctioning them by withdrawing European budgets from both countries.

The EU-27 have managed to agree on a common position on the rule of law, but have not been able to agree on sanctions or future steps to be taken unanimously: both Hungary and Poland have opposed it, believing the proposal goes too far, as have the northern countries (the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Belgium), which, with the support of Austria and Luxembourg, think the reasons for withdrawing their budgets are insufficient.

This division may lead to a blockage of the recovery fund (proposed to alleviate the coronavirus crisis), since the legal decision for Brussels to issue debt must be approved by all Member States and then ratified by national parliaments.
 

The dinner on the first day of the summit will focus on the leaders' reflections on the future of relations with Turkey, a country with which tension has also been rising because of its incursions into the Mediterranean waters of Cyprus and Greece.

European diplomacy is in favour of exhausting the avenues of dialogue with Ankara, because they consider it to be a strategic partner in the region, particularly for migration management, which keeps the possibility of sanctions to defend European interests on hold, as Nicosia demands.

The director of the European Parliament's office in Madrid declared to Atalayar that "Turkey always has something to say and has exerted its pressure in a very intelligent way. If you have noticed, the foreign ministers do speak very clearly about sanctions against Belarus. But as far as Turkey is concerned, the subject has been brought to the discussion, but the subject of sanctions has not been mentioned", he explained last week on Atalayar's radio program.

The migratory pressure that the country exerts towards the European Union is an issue that overwhelms community leaders. Turkey currently hosts over 3.6 million Syrian refugees, some 300,000 Iraqis and tens of thousands of Afghans and Iranians. All of them are waiting for Europe to process their requests for asylum and refuge. The brake the Ottoman country is making is helping the Union to continue on its way without worrying too much about migration policies, which, after the fire in the Moria camp, have again come up for discussion with the reform of the Dublin Treaty. 

Before addressing the Turkish issue, the leaders will also attempt to overcome the lack of unanimity by confirming the informal agreement of August in which the 27 agreed to sanction some twenty leaders in Belarus in response to the violent repression of protests in the country and the manipulation of the presidential elections.

Although the two conflicts are totally different, they are linked by Cyprus' reluctance, which is conditioning its support for the sanctions against Minsk on the adoption of similar measures against Ankara for its intimidation in the Mediterranean.

In recent days Turkey has withdrawn from the Mediterranean waters in dispute with Greece, making room for dialogue with Athens. However, it is still active in Cypriot areas, where Nicosia has reported an increase in tension and is calling for European solidarity.

Charles Michel's idea is to set up an international conference so that the maritime conflict can be resolved from a multilateral viewpoint and the EU's relationship with Turkey, which covers different issues from migration to stability in the southern neighbourhood, can be channelled.
 

Finally, the European leaders discussed the future of relations with the United Kingdom after London adopted a law repealing provisions of the Brexit agreement. The Union considers this move, which it regards as a violation of international law, unacceptable. The capitals are not expecting a substantive debate, as it will be part of their discussion at the formal summit that will bring them together again in Brussels in mid-October.

For its part, the British government will respond "in due time" to the letter sent by the European Commission (EC) after it announced legal measures against this country for a controversial bill that contravenes the Brexit exit agreement, said an official spokesperson in London on Thursday.

Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has announced the opening of infringement proceedings against the government of Boris Johnson for failing to withdraw before the end of September a controversial bill on the internal market which contravenes the agreement on the exit of this country from the Community block.

"We need to create a legal safety net to protect the integrity of the UK's internal market, to ensure that ministers can always meet their obligations in Northern Ireland and to protect the gains made in the peace process," said the UK spokesman.

This controversial legislation will now go to the House of Lords, where the Conservatives do not have a majority. However, if the Upper House were to make changes, these would have to be endorsed by the Commons. Although Brussels had already warned London that it would take legal action if the bill was not withdrawn before the end of last month, Boris Johnson went ahead with the process.

However, under pressure from members of his own party, the British prime minister added an additional safeguard whereby he will not be able to execute the powers that such a law would give him to break the agreement to leave the bloc signed last October, if he does not first obtain permission from Parliament.

The head of government has said that there is no intention to alter the treaty if both parties reach an agreement on their future relationship before the end of the transition period on the Brexit at the end of December.