Britain's slender hopes of securing Italian support in its campaign to stop Jean-Claude Juncker becoming European Commission president crumbled on Wednesday when Germany offered Rome a gentler interpretation of EU budget rules.
Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that a European Union pact that sets limits on government deficits should be applied flexibly to promote economic growth. This gesture to the wishes of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi all but ensures he will back Juncker's nomination at a summit on Friday.
"The German government agrees that the Stability and Growth Pact offers excellent conditions for (promoting growth and competitiveness), with clear guard rails and limits on the one hand and a lot of instruments allowing flexibility on the other," Merkel told Germany's lower house of parliament.
"We must use both just as they have been used in the past."
The EU summit starts on Thursday with a solemn commemoration in Ypres, Belgium, of the outbreak of World War One a century ago in which millions of Europeans died. That will be followed by a working dinner on the EU's long-term policy agenda before the contentious decision on the Commission presidency on Friday.
The tilt in economic policy and the likely appointment of 59-year-old Juncker highlight a new political balance in Europe that is set to shape the EU's institutions for the next five years, with the risk of Britain drifting away.
Juncker, who was prime minister of Luxembourg for 19 years,
has been at the heart of EU decision-making since the early 1990s. But British Prime Minister David Cameron has waged a campaign against Juncker, casting him as an old-school federalist who does not have the skill or energy to breathe new life into the EU.
Cameron renewed his promise in parliament to fight to the end but seems certain to be overwhelmingly defeated in an unprecedented summit vote he has demanded.
The leaders of Sweden and the Netherlands, who initially shared Cameron's reservations, both announced they would not block Juncker and a senior German official forecast "a very large, dominant majority" in favour of the appointment.
The tentative convergence between Italy and Germany points the way towards a German-style "grand coalition" of the centre-left and centre-right at European level, with Renzi, the young reformer, in the frontline with the conservative Merkel.
Comments
Comments are closed.