Europe aiming for bold new relaunch
brussels — What a difference a year makes for the European Union.
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, will deliver the annual State of the Union speech next week in a more upbeat mood than a year ago, when the 28-nation bloc was buffeted by the UK’s decision to leave and anti-EU parties appeared to be on the march.
In a sign of the EU’s renewed confidence, Juncker will push for freetrade pacts with Australia and New Zealand at a time when the US is turning inward, along with a blocwide system for screening foreign takeovers and deeper euro-area banking integration. To underline the range of EU projects being planned without Britain, Juncker may not even refer to Brexit at all, according to two officials familiar with his thinking who asked not to be named discussing the speech.
“There’s a big sigh of relief,” said Michael Tscherny, a former EU official who now advises companies on European policy at GPlus Europe in Brussels. “The populist tide appears to have been stemmed and Brexit doesn’t seem to be a big threat. But plenty of challenges, including the specter of trade wars, remain.”
Juncker’s moment in the sun comes as British Premier Theresa May struggles for leverage in the divorce talks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks set for a fourth term and Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France crowned ballot wins by pro-EU forces. As a result, the bloc senses an opportunity to snuff out centrifugal forces that have eased since they propelled the Brexit vote and rattled Europe’s mainstream political parties.
The bloc’s leaders say 60 years of European integration provide the template for tackling current challenges that range from Middle East refugee flows and terrorist threats to high unemployment and sluggish investment. In his September 13 speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Juncker will ask EU governments to give his commission, the EU’s executive arm, the authority to begin free-trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand. His plan comes on the heels of a provisional EU accord with Japan and a week before a hard-fought European deal with Canada enters into force.
The outreach to Australia and New Zealand will offer a fresh reminder of the EU’s global marketopening clout, further distance Europe from US President Donald Trump’s protectionist tilt and raise awkward questions for May. While forging ahead with Brexit, she plans to cut and paste the EU’s trade deals and will be unable to strike her own commercial pacts until after the UK quits the bloc in March 2019.
“It’s the decision of the United Kingdom to leave — a mistake for the United Kingdom — but democracy is democracy,” EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani told a September 6 conference in Brussels. — Bloomberg