Mr Tusk’s inauguration completes the full circle of the change of guard at the top of the EU. It started with last May’s elections to the European Parliament, continued with the new composition of the European Commission, the EU’s “government”, and a change of its foreign policy supremo; and ended on 01 December with Mr Tusk taking up the post of President of the European Council. The last bit of the EU governance jigsaw puzzle is in place but will it provide solutions to the burning issues facing Europe?
Mr Tusk’s predecessor Herman Van Rompuy, the first ever full time President of the Council was a master of compromise and maintained a low profile so as not to ruffle the egos of member state leaders. His experience of keeping the bickering Flemish and Walloon communities in his native Belgium together against all odds served him in good stead at the top of EU. Mr Tusk comes from a different background – that of a strongly cohesive nation that had to be taken through a lot of economic and social change in a fairly top-down manner.
Tusk's To-Do List
When listing his four top priorities Mr Tusk avoided mentioning Ukraine or Russia by name but these two are crucial to the success or otherwise of his agenda. Maybe he needs to tweak it like this:
Achieving a peace settlement in Ukraine. Kiev’s so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation is going nowhere but has already cost well over 4,000 lives. For a country declaring its allegiance to European values it’s inadmissible to be talking to its own citizens through indiscriminate area shelling. Mr Tusk doesn’t have to look further than Northern Ireland. Until the British Government agreed to dialogue with the IRA there was no prospect of a peace process. Mr Tusk should explain to Kiev that only dialogue with East Ukraine can bring peace and stability to the country as well as safeguard its territorial integrity.
Ending mindless confrontation with Russia which is damaging to both economies. Tit-for-tat sanctions won’t help avoid another recession or reduce unemployment in the Eurozone. Although EU is not NATO, it could – and should — exert its collective influence to tone down the anti-Russian hysteria and bring NATO to its senses. Far from being enhanced, EU’s security is being compromised by NATO’s military posturing and belligerent rhetoric. The only result has been Russia digging in its heels and stepping up its military preparedness. There doesn’t seem to be an understanding in the EU that Russia does not crack under pressure. Maybe that’s something that Donald Tusk can bring to the table.
Threats Inside and Outside
Mr Tusk says his priority is EU’s relations with US. In developing the EU-US relations it’s best to establish a level playing field and impress on Washington that EU is its own keeper and not a junior partner or a useful tool to spread American influence. This would help allay some worries among the “old” EU members that Poland may be an American Trojan horse in Brussels.
Mr Tusk spoke of the need for unity within the EU to stand up to its ‘enemies’ and ‘threats inside and outside’. No prizes for guessing who the EU considers to be its enemies. But it may be that the biggest threat to EU comes from within – from the growing numbers of eurosceptics, and not just in Britain. But the way Mr Tusk deals with the challenge to EU coming from David Cameron will have a long lasting impact on the future of the European Union.
Many observers agree that Donald Tusk has a great appetite and talent for leadership and is unafraid of risk and does not shy away from pushing through unpopular reforms. But what he is likely to need in his new job are skills that he himself praised in the outgoing President Herman Van Rompuy: creating compromises; finding solutions; establishing trust. But above all – that rare commodity in present-day Western politics — common sense.
