PREVIEW - EU Leaders To Meet On Wednesday For 2-Day Summit To Discuss Brexit, Migration, Security

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) EU leaders are set to gather for a two-day summit on Wednesday to discuss a number of pressing issues, including stalled Brexit talks, migration issue, the economy, as well as traditional and new security challenges.

The meeting in Brussels has been portrayed for months as a very important one: important for Brexit, important for "solving" the persistent migration issue, important for the strength of the euro, allegedly threatened by Greece, Italy and other struggling economies, important for security and the fight against terrorism, important for the situation in the middle East, and European defense.

BREXIT CACOPHONY AMID LACK OF EU-27 UNITY

The heads of governments and state will first try to reinvigorate Brexit discussions at a dinner on Wednesday.

The talks come as breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations expected this weekend has not taken place. The two chief Brexit negotiators, Dominic Raab for London and Michel Barnier for Brussels, met on Sunday in a bid to resolve the remaining disagreements, yet the latter announced after the talks that "some issues were still open."

The issue of Northern Ireland and model of a future economic partnership continue to be the most thorny points.

The UK detractors of UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Chequers plan do not see a clear exit from the customs union, in which the United Kingdom will remain for a transitional period up to 2020, but which they want to exit. They fear that if a new trade agreement is not clearly decided for 2021, Brexit will never happen.

Another thing that makes London concerned: keeping Northern Ireland in the common European market after Brexit would mean that there are other rules in this part of the country. May pledges to "to preserve the integrity of her country" as Primary interest and is ready, if necessary, to leave the European Union without any agreement.

European Council President Donald Tusk declared at the Salzburg informal summit in September that "on October 17, we expect maximum progress and results in the Brexit talks. Then we will decide whether conditions are there to call an extraordinary summit in November to finalise and formalise the deal."

Commenting on the backdrop of the summit, Paul Nuttall, a European Parliament member from the UKIP party, said that the meeting comes as Brussels was keeping pressure on the United Kingdom to scare off other members from following London's suit.

"The supposed EU negotiating progress announced by Juncker has not become reality. The stance of Michel Barnier, the European chief negotiator, remains to act like a punishing beating squad on the UK. The EU wants to scare off other countries who could be tempted to leave the political union ... For Merkel or Macron, the centralist EU project is all that matters. A no deal Brexit would be very damaging to some EU countries that trade a lot with the UK," Nuttall told Sputnik.

Meanwhile, the union fails to display the desired unity, according to Nuttall.

"Italy has been bullied over the last weeks. [Hungarian President] Viktor Orban has been presented by the vice-president of the commission, [Frans] Timmermans, as a follower of Adolf Hitler. How far will they go to oblige European nations to close ranks, these unelected masters of Europe?" he wondered, apparently referring to a disciplinary process launched by the union against Budapest over human rights, corruption and constitutional system concerns.

Tusk himself effectively backtracked on his positive expectations from the summit on Tuesday, saying that he saw "no grounds for optimism" on Brexit and the EU leaders would likely discuss how to best prepare for a potential absence of the deal.

Migration is expected to become the most important topic at the summit, as after years-long talks the bloc has so far failed to reform the Dublin regulation and work out an EU-wide solution, with ships full of migrants rescued from vessels in the Mediterranean being bounced back from country-to-country.

In his state of the union speech, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker reiterated "the need for a solution."

"We cannot continue to squabble to find ad hoc solutions each time a new ship arrives. Temporary solidarity is not good enough. We need lasting solidarity - today and forever more... I would also like to remind member states again of the need to open legal pathways to the Union. I renew my call. We need skilled migrants," he argued.

During the upcoming summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also certainly repeat that Europe needs solidarity in tackling undocumented migration. Yet, there is much resentment among some nations against the open-door policy pursued by Germany in 2015.

Given the divide, EU-wide decisions on the issue are a long way to go.

"Illiberal Europe" is a term favored by European Parliament member from Belgium Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, to describe "populists" of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and the like. Verhofstadt and his allies demanded that the coming European Council this week decides to activate the legal "atomic bomb" against Poland and Hungary � Article 7 of the Treaty.

Verhofstadt wants to take away the right to vote in the EU bodies of the governments of these two countries, supported by a large majority in their own parliament, due to concerns over judiciary independence and human rights in these countries.

"You are obliged to activate Article 7 and put it on the agenda of the European council on October 18! Illiberalism is on the rise in Europe and it is not by being silent that it is going to go away. On the contrary, it will continue," he told the European Commission.

The EU summit in Brussels will also look into security and defense, starting with its active collaboration with NATO. The European Commission is expected to call for toughening measures to tackle hybrid challenges in the sphere of cybersecurity. The fear of alleged Russian hackers is high on the agenda.

So is the fear of chemical weapons, in the wake of the assumed use of chemicals in the Syrian conflict and the Salisbury poisoning incident.

Actually, the events prompted the union to adopt on Monday a new regime of restrictive measures to address the use and proliferation of chemical weapons.

The EU will now be able to impose sanctions and travel bans to Europe on persons and entities involved in the development and use of chemical weapons anywhere, regardless of their nationality and location. It includes assets freezes.

If they have time, EU leaders will also touch on other topics, such as the status of the Balkans where the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) should be renamed to North Macedonia, once its parliament ratifies the relevant deal with Athens. Recently intensified tensions between Serbia and Kosovo may also be on agenda.

Finally, EU leaders will also talk about strengthening of the eurozone, still weakened by the slow recovery of Greece and the increasing debt of Italy with their new budget.