Key facts
- European Council President António Costa faced significant criticism from EU leaders at a summit.
- The summit saw divisions over energy price negotiations and the bloc's seven-year budget.
- Discussions on the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS2) became highly contentious, leading to delays.
- A bloc including Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, the Nordics, and the Netherlands clashed with Italy, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland over ETS2.
- Some officials accused Costa of losing control of the summit proceedings and not acting as an honest broker on budget talks.
- Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever defended Costa's approach to summit negotiations.
European Council President António Costa faced significant criticism from national leaders during a summit in Brussels, with divisions emerging over his handling of negotiations on curbing energy prices and the bloc's seven-year budget. The summit, intended to show progress, instead saw stalemate and mounting division, with talks dragging on for 14 hours with little concrete outcome.
The core of the contention revolved around the second phase of the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS2), which aims to put a carbon price on heating and transport from 2028. This debate became so bogged down that Costa was forced to cancel a planned press conference and delay further discussions. Fiery negotiations pitted a coalition of Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, the Nordics, and the Netherlands against a bloc comprising Italy, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland, who sought to postpone ETS2 due to concerns about its impact on energy bills.
Several diplomats and officials expressed frustration with Costa's leadership, with some accusing him of losing control of the room and failing to effectively manage proposed amendments. Comparisons were drawn to his predecessors, Charles Michel and Donald Tusk, with some suggesting Costa performed worse than Michel and lacked Tusk's dealmaking prowess. The annoyance extended to budget negotiations, where some northern EU countries felt Costa favored southern nations and questioned his impartiality as an honest broker.
However, some defended Costa's approach. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever praised him for avoiding the detailed wording negotiations that had plagued previous summits. Other officials pointed to the inherent difficulty of the task and blamed specific leaders, like Italy's Giorgia Meloni, for attempting to unpick legislation.