The call by Angela Merkel to reopen the European Union’s treaties in a major address to the Bundestag is already generating reaction from heads of government in other member states as they begin descending on Brussels for a two-day summit.
Ms Merkel worked the phones the day before the summit, calling several of her counterparts in an attempt to shore up support – a sign of just how precarious her position is and her need to come out of the summit with a victory following intense criticism at home for her political deal-making to win over reluctant allies.
The new Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, was one of the first out of the gate, noting even before Ms Merkel gave her Bundestag speech that while the desire to renegotiate the treaties to create a new, permanent bailout fund was important, it shouldn’t distract EU members from the more immediate task at hand: approving a new raft of proposed budget and economic reforms that are aimed at preventing another Greece-like implosion.
“Although it might be necessary to have a permanent crisis mechanism in the long run, our first obligation is to ensure a swift and effective implementation of all those new instruments that will avoid the need to ever to use such a mechanism: preventing a crisis trumps fixing a crisis,” Mr Rutte said Wednesday.
The less-than-enthusiastic response from Mr Rutte appears to be a reflection of Dutch frustration with Berlin’s courting of France over the last two weeks, which has been the talk of Brussels ever since Ms Merkel cut a side deal with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, last week.
Mr Rutte’s government was one of the most ardent allies of German efforts to create new, near-automatic fines and penalties for countries that fail to get their debt levels in line with EU norms. But Germany abandoned their Dutch allies when they cut a deal with France last week to water down the automatic fines in exchange for French backing of treaty change.
Another country that was part of the pro-German coalition – and was symbolically cast aside by Ms Merkel’s deal with Mr Sarkozy – was Finland, which went through its own banking crisis in the 1990s only to emerge economically stronger (and more fiscally cautious) over the last decade.
But in a statement Thursday morning, Mari Kiviniemi, the Finnish prime minister, was more supportive of German efforts than her Dutch counterpart. Ms Kiviniemi backed Ms Merkel on all her policy proscriptions for the new bailout system – and critically said Finland would back a reopening of the treaties, if it proved necessary.
“If this new system requires treaty change, then treaty change should be done,” she said. “The president of the European Council should prepare options for further consideration.”
In addition to France’s support, Ms Merkel appears to now have at least one more vote in her corner. Whether she can win over the remaining 24 remains to be seen.
Update: The FT’s Brussels blog will have regular updates on the EU summit today and tomorrow
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