Video viEUws.eu: Post-EU Summit Takeaways: EU leaders in "wait-and-see mood" over Greece and Ukraine
Janis A. Emmanouilidis - the European Policy Centre’s leading expert on EU politics - joins Lénaïc Vaudin d’Imécourt for an exclusive post-summit analysis, following the European Council on 12 February 2015.
The Greek debt crisis and Ukraine ceasefire deal were at the centre stage during this EU Summit. However, Emmanouilidis underlines that heads of state have not delivered much and took a “wait-and-see” approach instead. He believes that the complicated bailout negotiations with Greece might still take some time. Even after a compromise is reached “the issue will remain with us for some months to come”.
Another important issue on the agenda during this summit was the Minsk II deal that was reached by the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia. EPC’s expert argues that “there is a lot of mistrust on all sides” and that the big question remains “whether all parties will stick to their part of the deal“. In the end, EU leaders did not have any “thorough discussions” on anti-terrorism measures as the topic was overshadowed by both Greece and Ukraine, Emmanouilidis explains. However, they did include a statement on strengthening EU border controls in the summit conclusions and agreed on the EU Passenger Name Record directive.
The European Policy Centre (EPC) is a Brussels-based independent think tank focusing on European integration. It provides high-quality analysis on the EU policy agenda. The EPC has a strong multi-constituency approach and has a wide range of private companies, business federations, trade unions, public institutions as well as NGOs as its members.
Janis A. Emmanouilidis has been working for the EPC since 2009 as a Senior Policy Analyst before becoming EPC’s Director of Studies. His publications cover the EU’s overall political and institutional development, the sovereign debt crisis, EU integration, the EU’s foreign policy as well as EU enlargement. Emmanouilidis is also active as an advisor to various governments, EU institutions, European parties and NGOs.