A Hole in the Cold Waters of Tallinn

The mid-semester European Council informal meeting was held from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon in Tallinn. Estonia holds the presidency of the EU in the first half of 2017.

Nothing news-braking happened at this meeting. There had been expectations that the ‘digital future of Europe’ would have been the main theme, and that the Brexit process would have been clarified—but they remained unfulfilled.

Talinn, City Centre -- Credit: Wikimedia commons

The news on Brexit varied widely, based on their sources: German Chancellor Angela Merkel displayed optimism for the direction the discussions are taking, while Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that “a miracle is needed” for progress in the negotiations with London to advance by the end of October. ‘Digital Europe’—including e-governance, cybersecurity and the development of advanced technology industries--was marginalised and overtaken by growing interest in Artificial Intelligence, an area in which the Union is behind the U.S. and Asia. The plan on Digital Europe foresees heavy policing and taxation of Internet activities and of its large players (Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others), an initiative already rejected by several member states—particularly Ireland and Luxembourg.

Some of the above issues are now on the agenda of the official European Council meeting in mid-October in Brussels. Social issues will be discussed in November at another informal meeting in Sweden.

In the margins of the conference it was observed that there are growing disagreements among the 26 member states that attended (Spain’s PM excused himself in view of the Catalan referendum this weekend) in respect to the future direction of Europe, following Juncker’s “State of the Union” speech of 13 September and to a long and controversial speech by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week. One point that gathered consensus among the heads of state and government was that they need more, and more frequent, informal meetings among themselves to discuss current issues without having to make decisions.