Until Portugal imploded, most of the focus of the two-day summit was expected to be on the new Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, who failed to secure a cut in Dublin’s bail-out loans during an emergency gathering two weeks ago.
Heading into a pre-summit gathering of centre-right leaders under the surprisingly blue skies at Belgium’s national botanic garden on the outskirts of Brussels, Kenny was in no mood to discuss the deal.
His EU counterparts had given Kenny until Friday to give make some significant concessions – - preferably a commitment to raise Ireland’s ultra-low corporate tax rate – - but Kenny continued to feed pre-summit expectations that no deal would be reached.
Saying he preferred to talk “substance” rather than “speculation”, Kenny made clear he wanted to wait until after another round of Irish bank stress tests, due to be completed at the end of the month, before re-opening any serious negotiations on bail-out rates.
“I want to have a much clearer picture of the bank stress tests,” Kenny said. Taking no questions, the prime minister ducked into the castle which serves as the summit spot for the EPP.
Kenny’s spokesman insisted the intention to wait until the end of the month was not a change in positions for the new leader. “We were always going to wait for the stress tests,” he said, drawing howls from the Irish press, who reminded the spokesman a deal was almost sealed to lower the rate one percentage point at the summit two weeks ago.
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