EU: "The December European Council"
There are many reasons why last June’s European Council was an important landmark. I would like to highlight one in particular. It lay to rest the idea that there is some kind of trade-off between the Union’s institutional progress and the delivery of fresh policies. Before, it was often suggested that if you talked about the policy agenda, you were in some way trying to avoid the institutional debate. And if you talked about the Constitution, you were accused of navel-gazing, an obsession with the mechanics. I think this theory has been comprehensively buried.
The twin-track strategy agreed last June set out how the two are linked, and how they are mutually reinforcing. For as long as we have to work with a Union less efficient and less democratic than we know is possible, our efforts to deliver the policies our citizens expect will never be wholly convincing. And every time that we bring forward policies which improve the lives of our citizens, this can only increase confidence in a new step forward in European integration.
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