EU leaders are moving towards more frequent use of “enhanced cooperation” to bypass national vetoes and speed up critical decisions, following yesterday’s informal summit outside Brussels.
The gathering of 27 leaders, which ran for several hours and finished around 8pm Cyprus time, showed growing support for the mechanism that allows at least nine member states to advance policies without unanimity.
EU treaties provide for enhanced cooperation as a safety valve when decisions cannot secure agreement from all member states. If nine or more states agree, they can proceed without the others.
The shift suggests a Europe of two or more speeds is closer than ever, vindicating those who have argued in recent weeks that the bloc needs ways around individual countries blocking progress.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen backed the approach. “Our ambition must always be to take decisions with the agreement of the 27 member states,” she said. “However, where lack of progress can undermine our competitiveness or our ability to act, we must not resist using the possibilities provided by the Treaties for enhanced cooperation.”
Nineteen states, including Cyprus, already met informally yesterday on competitiveness and the single market in a session called by Germany and Italy.
European Council President António Costa wrote on X after the summit that EU leaders are united on the urgent need to strengthen Europe’s social market economy. He thanked former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi for his contribution to discussions on competitiveness in energy, capital markets and strategic industries, and former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta for his vision on the single market’s future.
Nineteen states push competitiveness agenda
On the sidelines, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever hosted a separate meeting focused on European competitiveness.
The informal working group brought together Italy, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and Hungary.
The 19 leaders discussed three priorities set out in a non-paper prepared jointly by Italy, Germany and Belgium: completing the single market, regulatory simplification and reducing energy prices.
The document calls for widespread withdrawal and simplification of European initiatives, a clean-up of old or incompatible legislative proposals, and a brake mechanism when new legislation creates excessive administrative costs for businesses and national authorities, CNA reports.
It also shifts focus to financing by leveraging private capital, creating a pan-European stock exchange and secondary market, and revising capital requirements for business financing without undermining financial stability.
CNA reports the document emphasises initiatives needed to restart European industry, starting with rapid revision of emissions taxation mechanisms such as the Emissions Trading System and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. It also stresses the need for immediate implementation of policy priorities set by the European Council.
Leaders who attended the preparatory meeting agreed to coordinate again on the sidelines of March’s European Council to keep competitiveness high on the agenda and help set specific targets and clear timelines.
Costa outlines priorities
At a press conference after the summit, Costa said leaders held a strategic discussion on building a more competitive and resilient economy that will advance prosperity, create high-quality jobs and ensure economic affordability, according to the Council website.
“Today’s discussions at Alden Biesen brought new energy and a common sense of urgency around this goal,” he said. “And, most importantly, today we paved the way to agree on concrete actions at the March European Council.”
Costa outlined six areas of agreement.
First, there is unanimity to continue advancing the ambitious programme of simplifying EU procedures, as developed in von der Leyen’s recent letter to leaders.
Second, leaders accept Letta’s challenge to move from an incomplete single market to “one market for one Europe” in 2026 and 2027, he said. Leaders also agree on rapidly advancing the 28th regime this year to ensure companies can operate seamlessly in all 27 member states with a simple and unified set of corporate rules.
Third, certain sectors such as telecommunications should allow company consolidation to achieve necessary levels of investment and innovation, Costa said. “This should be part of a kind of social contract. To ensure consolidated companies invest more and innovate more.” Leaders want real European champions to emerge in strategic sectors, with the ongoing revision of merger guidelines playing an important role.
Fourth, on electricity prices, the energy transition remains Europe’s best long-term strategy for strategic autonomy and lower prices, but realistic solutions are needed in the meantime, he said. “Concrete solutions focused on specific challenges of member states and certain industrial sectors.” The Commission will examine specific measures at the next European Council in March.
Fifth, there is broad understanding of the strategic importance of protecting and strengthening sectors including defence, space, clean technologies, quantum intelligence, artificial intelligence and payment systems, Costa said. “We will map and identify our dependencies and address them through a diversification strategy.”
On European preference for purchasing European products in public contracts, Costa said there is broad agreement on using it in selected strategic sectors in a proportionate and targeted way after in-depth analysis.
Sixth, there is unanimity that Europe is open to trade and that an ambitious, realistic trade policy focused on diversification is in the collective interest, he said.
“Finally, there is no doubt that Europe lacks investment. There will be no competitiveness without more investment,” Costa said. Leaders focused mainly on mobilising private investment, with unanimous support for accelerating the Savings and Investment Union. “Europe needs a unified and effective financial system that can better convert European savings into investment in Europe. But public investment will also play a crucial role.”