A European Union (EU) summit will be held in Brussels on Feb. 11 to discuss measures to boost the EU economy, the global treaty on climate change, and emergency aid and reconstruction for Haiti.
The EU's new president, Herman Van Rompuy, will chair the summit for the first time since taking office.
Speaking with the press on Feb. 8 in Brussels, Van Rompuy called for establishment of an “economic government” for the bloc, with closer policy coordination and financial incentives.
The EU president said the global economic crisis had revealed weaknesses in EU economic cooperation. Chief among them, a situation where each individual nation has its own economic strategy without coordinating policies with other member countries in line with the EU’s agreed-upon general strategic targets, which include growth and employment.
The evocation of an European “economic government” won France’s support, yet Germany, Britain and others remain opposed to the plan which they see as an assault on their fiscal independence.
The summit this time will also prepare the groundwork for a new EU economic strategy that focuses on investment for research, innovation and the green economy.
The strategy will succeed the bloc's Lisbon Strategy launched in 2000, which was supposed to make Europe 's economy the most competitive and dynamic in the world. However, the strategy was considered neither successful nor effective, and thus needs to be replaced./.