Unlock the Editor’s Digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
This text is an on-site model of our Europe Categorical e-newsletter. Sign up here to get the e-newsletter despatched straight to your inbox each weekday and Saturday morning
Good morning. There are seven brief days left till the final EU leaders’ summit of the 12 months, and no signal of a compromise deal on any of the important thing points that shall be mentioned there. The bloc’s diplomats will earn their Christmas break over the approaching week.
In the present day, our glorious new finance and economic system correspondent walks you thru the crunch resolution on debt and deficit guidelines going through EU ministers tonight over supper, whereas our Athens correspondent previews the primary go to by Turkey’s president to Greece in six years.
Major course
Finance ministers are resulting from chew on a reform of EU fiscal guidelines at dinner this night, however a compromise digestible to all is proving arduous to serve up, writes Paola Tamma.
Context: Guidelines governing debt and deficits within the EU, referred to as the Stability and Development Pact, are thought of too strict and have been haphazardly enforced. The European Fee in spring proposed an overhaul in favour of multiannual, custom-made spending plans, basically giving nations extra time to convey down extreme debt.
However the proposals have been considered too lax by a group of countries led by Germany, who efficiently pushed for tighter necessities or “safeguards”.
The newest compromise that’s in entrance of ministers at this time additional accedes to German calls for by setting numerical targets for annual debt cuts and limiting annual spending.
“We see that as a giant success within the negotiations,” a senior German official mentioned, score the possibilities of a deal at 50/50, “if not higher”.
This in flip roils others, together with France and Italy, who worry they’ve little to realize from swapping the established order, imperfect as it’s, for a reform that may curtail public investments and constrain spending at a time of rising curiosity prices.
The fee can be afraid that the safeguards grafted on its proposal basically undermine the aim of getting easier guidelines that may not deepen an financial contraction.
“The aim of simplification is out of the window. That of making a countercyclical system is in danger,” mentioned an EU official.
Nonetheless, for a lot of if not all, a foul deal is best than no deal.
“I feel we nonetheless shall be arriving at a system that can protect the essential parameters of the fee’s proposal, though perhaps with some substantial deviations,” EU govt vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis instructed the Monetary Occasions.
Spain’s aim is to get ministers to again a deal by Friday. It might then be as much as Belgium, who’s taking up the rotating EU Council presidency from Spain in January, to barter a compromise with parliament, which nonetheless must vote by itself place.
The ultimate aim is to wrap this up earlier than EU elections subsequent June. Bon appétit.
Chart du jour: Taking up Elon
As Tesla’s battle with Swedish unions spreads to Denmark, the FT’s editorial board argues that Elon Musk ought to adapt to the European social model, not the opposite approach round.
Frenemies
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visits Athens at this time for the primary time since 2017 to satisfy Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, aiming to bolster the lately warming local weather between the 2 leaders, writes Eleni Varvitsioti.
Context: Relations between Athens and Ankara have been rocky for years, with tensions heightening in 2020 when Turkey despatched warships alongside a survey ship to search for potential oil and fuel reserves in disputed waters within the Aegean.
The 2 leaders haven’t had direct, bilateral contact since Could 2022, when Mitsotakis lobbied towards Ankara’s efforts to purchase F-16 fighter jets from Washington. “There’s now not anybody referred to as Mitsotakis in my e book,” Erdoğan mentioned again then.
Erdoğan yesterday explicitly linked Washington’s approval for that F-16 buy to Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s membership of Nato — one other concern that the 2 leaders are prone to focus on.
The go to follows Greece’s response to a devastating earthquake in Turkey final February, which left hundreds lifeless and tens of millions displaced. Athens noticed it as a chance to unfreeze the diplomatic relations between the 2 nations and was one of many first nations to ship humanitarian help.
One of many most important gadgets on the agenda at this time shall be migration and bettering communication channels between the 2 nations’ coast guards.
There’s additionally an anticipated announcement of an initiative to grant Turkish residents one-year visas to go to the East Aegean Islands.
What to look at at this time
-
European Council president Charles Michel and European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen are in Beijing for the EU-China summit.
-
French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for a working dinner in Paris.
-
Eurogroup finance ministers meet.
-
EU trade ministers meet.
Now learn these
Are you having fun with Europe Categorical? Sign up here to have it delivered straight to your inbox each workday at 7am CET and on Saturdays at midday CET. Do inform us what you suppose, we love to listen to from you: europe.express@ft.com. Sustain with the newest European tales @FT Europe