EU summit: between gas prices and Poland, indigestible menu for the 27

European summit with a hearty menu in Brussels on October 21 and 22.

AFP - JOHN THYS

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The 27 of the European Union are meeting this Thursday and tomorrow in Brussels for a summit where they will discuss in particular the Covid pandemic, the soaring price of energy - especially gas -, the COP 26 and tensions with Poland.

A very busy schedule therefore. 

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With Warsaw still contesting the supremacy of European law over national law, a

has started between the 26 and the Polish government.

Because apart from central Europe where Poland enjoys clear support, most European countries tend to agree that the Polish constitutional court is undermining the very foundations of the European Union

 It is an unprecedented attack against one of the founding elements of the European Union, believes Brussels ... Poland for its part highlights its sovereignty and

 exercised by the European Union which threatens to no longer pay it funding if it persists in this direction.

What measures to take?

The observation is shared but it is on the method that differences emerge.

Some want a political decision in principle immediately to freeze the payments of European funds to Poland, but others advocate waiting for a final legal opinion from the Court of Justice of the Union.

But retaliatory measures, economic or legal, are delicate tools to handle which could also open a major crisis within the European Union, and rob other countries of Eastern Europe.

►

: against Poland, the European Commission examines its retaliatory options

This is also the fear of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who advocates dialogue with Warsaw and hopes to find a way to avoid this open crisis - she will be keen to achieve it because this European summit should be her last. after 16 years in power ... 

Another line of fracture: gas

And the lines of fractures between Europeans are even more numerous on energy prices.

Some countries are disappointed by the

by the Commission.

They ask again to go much further.

Spain is returning to the charge on group purchases of 27 but in north-western Europe it is told that its problems come from the fact that it does not have long-term contracts.

►

: Why gas prices are soaring in Europe

Soaring energy prices are seen in some countries as a fleeting problem.

Prices will regulate themselves in the spring, they say in Germany, Benelux or Scandinavia;

countries unfavorable to a reform of the European internal energy market and therefore to the French request to remove the alignment of electricity prices with those of gas.

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• European Union

• Poland

• Energies