EU leader damns the Brexiteers who failed to plan

Yahoo – AFP, Dave Clark and Alice Ritchie in London, February 6, 2019

European Union leader Donald Tusk, seen here with Ireland's Prime Minister Leo
Varadkar (left), has warned that the Brexit deal Theresa May agreed last year
will not be reopened (AFP Photo/Aris Oikonomou)

Brussels (AFP) - European Union leader Donald Tusk injected hellfire into the Brexit crisis on Wednesday, damning British leaders for their failure to plan for the divorce and saying he hopes Theresa May now has a "realistic" idea.

The British prime minister is due in Brussels on Thursday to seek new ways towards ensuring Britain's orderly withdrawal from the EU in March 29 -- and to avoid what Tusk warned could be a "fiasco."

But EU Council president Tusk and EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, after meeting Irish leader Leo Varadkar, warned once again that the divorce deal May agreed last year but failed to sell to her parliament will not be reopened.

Neither will they change the deal's "backstop" that ensures an open Irish border, they said. And, in remarks that triggered a firestorm, Tusk mocked British eurosceptic leaders, some of whom now favour a "no deal" departure.

"I've been wondering what that special place in Hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely," Tusk said.

Juncker, at a later news conference, did not use the same language, but cheerfully laughed off Tusk's remark, joking: "I am less Catholic that my friend Donald. I believe in Heaven but I've never seen Hell apart from doing my job here. It is Hell."

This caused an uproar across the Channel, with a spokesman for the Northern Irish loyalist party the DUP picking up on the infernal theme and branding Tusk a "devilish, trident-wielding, euro maniac."

Number 10 was more measured in its response, but did not hide its irritation.

"It's a question for Donald Tusk as to whether he considers the use of that kind of language to be helpful, and I appreciate that was difficult this morning because he didn't take any questions," May's spokesman said.

British ministers and Brexiteers have repeatedly used insulting language about EU leaders and the union itself, comparing it to Nazi Germany or the Soviet gulag, but many expressed outrage at Tusk's taunt.

Eurosceptic British MEP Nigel Farage, who once called former EU leader Hermann van Rompuy a "damp rag", tweeted at Tusk: "After Brexit we will be free of unelected, arrogant bullies like you and run our own country. Sounds more like heaven to me."

Low expectations

The impasse in Brussels has led to heightened fears Britain could crash out of the EU without a deal on March 29, disrupting trade and supplies to manufacturing.

Tusk and Juncker said they look forward to hosting May on Thursday, but few in Brussels expect her to come with an acceptable offer to revive the deal, 50 days from Brexit.

Varadkar will have dinner with May in Dublin on Friday.

Offering warm support for his Irish guest, Tusk said the European Union "will not gamble with peace" on the Irish border by removing the backstop from the deal.

"I hope that tomorrow we will hear from Prime Minister May a realistic suggestion on how to end the impasse," he said.

But he added: "A sense of responsibility also tells us to prepare for a possible fiasco."

Varadkar, whose government has stressed the importance of maintaining an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit, thanked Tusk.

Painstaking talks

"While we expect the backstop will never be used, we agreed again today it is needed as a legal guarantee to ensure there is no return to a hard border," he said.

May fears she will not be able to command a majority in the House of Commons to ratify a withdrawal that binds Britain into a customs union until the border issue is resolved.

On Wednesday, she discussed the issue with Northern Irish leaders in the British province before her difficult visit to Brussels to confront Juncker and Tusk.

Last month, the House of Commons overwhelmingly rejected the Brexit deal that May had negotiated with the EU over 18 months of painstaking diplomacy.

May is now looking into changes to satisfy her MPs, who fear the backstop would keep Britain indefinitely tied to EU rules with even closer alignment for Northern Ireland.

May's spokesman stressed that she wasn't coming to Brussels to ask for more time and remained determined to deliver a Brexit deal before the March 29 deadline.

"Parliament voted by a significant margin to set out what it wishes to achieve, which is changes to the backstop," the Number 10 spokesman told reporters.

Speaking in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, May vowed to seek a solution that keeps the border open and preserves the peace that ended years of violence in the British province.

British PM hits back at EU over Brexit plan

Yahoo – AFP, Alice RITCHIE, Joe JACKSON, September 21, 2018

British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted her plan for a UK-EU free trade area
just for goods was "the only proposal on the table" (AFP Photo/Christof STACHE)

London (AFP) - Prime Minister Theresa May hit back Friday at the European Union after it roundly rejected her Brexit plan, saying its refusal to compromise was "not acceptable" and warning she was still prepared to walk away from the talks.

In a defiant statement from Downing Street, May blamed Brussels for the "impasse" just weeks ahead of a deadline to seal a deal -- and six months before Britain leaves the EU in March.

"Throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same," the prime minister said.

May was speaking after returning from an EU summit in Salzburg Thursday, where her fellow leaders lined up to condemn her proposals for post-Brexit trading ties and the Irish border.

It was a setback characterised by the British media as a "humiliation", just days before a meeting of May's Conservative party, where eurosceptics are ramping up the pressure on their leader to be tough.

Standing at a podium with two British flags behind her, May said: "At this late stage in the negotiations, it is not acceptable to simply reject the other side's proposals without a detailed explanation and counter proposals.

"So we now need to hear from the EU what the real issues are and what their alternative is so that we can discuss them. Until we do, we cannot make progress."

She said she wanted an agreement, but "I have always said no deal is better than a bad deal".

The pound slipped against the euro after she spoke, reflecting fears that Britain could crash out of the EU with no agreement.

Tough talk

EU Council President Donald Tusk hit back late Friday at May's criticism of the EU's negotiating position: "The results of our analysis have been known to the British side in every detail for many weeks."

"The UK stance presented just before and during the Salzburg meeting was surprisingly tough and in fact uncompromising," he said in a statement.

Tusk added he remains "convinced that a compromise, good for all, is still possible" in Brexit negotiations and that he is "a close friend of the UK and a true admirer of PM May".

EU leaders had previously criticised May's proposal for a free trade area in goods after Brexit, but the tough tone at the Salzburg summit surprised many commentators, with some describing it as an "ambush".

Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron said it would fragment the bloc's single market and "not work", and demanded she come back with an alternative by an EU summit in mid-October.

The bloc also raised the stakes by putting on ice a special summit planned for November to seal a deal, saying it would only happen if there is progress next month.

On Friday, May said the EU's plan for Britain to stay in the European Economic Area, effectively the single market without any say in the rules, would "make a mockery" of the 2016 vote for Brexit.

Meanwhile the alternative offer of a free trade agreement was contingent on a "backstop" keeping British-ruled Northern Ireland aligned with EU rules, which she warned risked the integrity of the UK.

This was "something no British prime minister would ever agree to" she said, adding: "If the EU believe I will, they are making a fundamental mistake."

She repeated that she would bring forward alternative proposals to the backstop, which would come into effect until a new trade deal is struck.

The Irish border is a key sticking point in negotiations (AFP Photo/Laurence 

SAUBADU)

'Rocky patch'

Reports suggested a tetchy meeting between May and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on the sidelines of the summit in Salzburg had helped harden views.

Varadkar said Friday the two sides were "entering into a rocky patch" but said he was determined to secure a deal.

EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said the two sides were "moving closer" but were like "hedgehogs who love each other".

"When two hedgehogs embrace, they have to watch out that they don't get scratched," he told the Austrian daily Die Presse.

Simon Usherwood, politics professor at the University of Surrey, said the EU's previous strategy of giving May some breathing room at summits had "collapsed".

Salzburg was "about irritation and bad tempers that the UK really hasn't got the measure of this properly", Usherwood added.

But he noted that May was "super-constrained by the party. She can't really be seen to be making concessions".

The House of Commons must approve any Brexit deal, and May's small majority would be undermined if her hardline Brexiteer lawmakers go through with a threat to oppose it.

Eurosceptic Tories welcomed May's tough tone on Friday but reiterated their own opposition to her trade plan, which they think will undermine Britain's independence.

Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the prime minister's negotiating strategy had been a "disaster".

"The political games from both the EU and our government need to end because no deal is not an option," he said.

#UPDATE EU Council President Donald Tusk has hit back at May's criticism of the EU's negotiating position, but added he remains "convinced that a compromise, good for all, is still possible" https://t.co/sR8zQoToXR

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 21, 2018

EU leaders agree tough Brexit stance

Yahoo – AFP, Danny KEMP, Alex PIGMAN, 29 April 2017

EU President Donald Tusk in Brussels at the HQ of the European Council,
on April 29, 2017 for a summit on Brexit negotiating guidelines

EU leaders unanimously backed a tough Brexit strategy at a summit on Saturday, demanding a "serious response" from Britain on the rights of European citizens before trade talks can start.

In a show of togetherness the 27 leaders agreed the negotiating guidelines within minutes and applauded as they met in Brussels without British Prime Minister Theresa May.

EU President Donald Tusk hailed the "outstanding unity" in an often fractious club, saying it was a "firm and fair political mandate" for the Brexit negotiations.

"After four minutes we were ready, it's very promising," former Polish premier Tusk told a news conference.

Britain swiftly warned that the talks could be "confrontational".

The summit was the first since May one month ago formally triggered the two-year process of untangling Britain from the European Union after four decades of membership.

The EU guidelines say talks on a future relationship with Britain can only start once London agrees divorce terms on citizens' rights, its exit bill and the border in Northern Ireland.

But Tusk said the fate of three million EU nationals living in Britain and one million Britons on the continent was the number one priority.

"We need a serious British response," Tusk said."I want to assure you that as soon as Britain gives real guarantees for our citizens, we will find a solution rapidly."

EU President Donald Tusk (R) said that before talks with Britain over Brexit
 "we must first sort out our past" and resolve the key divorce issues of
"people, money and Ireland"

'Underestimate difficulties'

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said May had repeatedly urged him to be "patient" when they had dinner in London this week, but said Britain now needed to get serious on the issue.

"I have the impression sometimes that our British friends, not all of them, do underestimate the technical difficulties we have to face," the former Luxembourg premier said.

Brexit has offered the EU a fresh chance at unity after years of bitter internal divisions over the eurozone debt crisis and migration, plus growing euroscepticism.

May, who has called elections in Britain in June in a bid to shore up her mandate for negotiations, this week accused the EU 27 of ganging up on London.

Her comments were partly in response to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said Britain had "illusions" about the talks.

Britain's Brexit minister David Davis said while London wanted good relations with the EU, the talks were "the most complex the UK has faced in our lifetimes. They will be tough and, at times even confrontational."

But Merkel insisted on Saturday that "no one is allied" against London and that the EU was merely protecting its interests following Britain's historic vote to leave last June.

Merkel said the 27 leaders had given a round of applause after "very quickly" adopting the guidelines.

French President Francois Hollande meanwhile praised their common position and said there would "inevitably be a price and a cost for Britain."

The EU 27 have considerably toughened the Brexit strategy since Tusk first unveiled it a month ago.

The guidelines say that trade talks can begin only when EU leaders unanimously decide "sufficient progress" has been made on divorce issues.

Merkel said EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told the leaders he hoped for agreement on the divorce phase by autumn, so the talks can move onto a trade deal.

However, Britain says it wants to discuss the divorce and a trade deal in parallel.

40-60 billion euro bill

In a further move that will rile London, the EU 27 also backed automatic membership for Northern Ireland if it reunifies with Ireland, and called for Spain to have a say over any deal that affects Gibraltar.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insisted he had "no red lines" on Gibraltar, a rocky outcrop off southern Spain that has been a British territory for 300 years.

The leaders discussed for the first time the spoils of Brexit -- the relocation of EU medical and banking agencies currently based in London.

While the EU says citizens' rights is a priority, the most touchy issue of all is likely to be Britain's exit bill.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said this was estimated at 40-60 billion euros ($42-65 billion), which mainly covers financial commitments made by the bloc while Britain was a member.

The bill is politically toxic for May in election campaign season.

But it also risks causing divisions among EU states -- split between those that make an overall contribution, and those that are net recipients -- as they debate how to plug any holes in the EU's budget.

"There are some who don't want to pay more and those who don't want to receive less. That is going to be a real debate," Juncker said.

Actual Brexit negotiations are not expected to begin until after the British election, although the EU is set to give an official mandate to Barnier on May 22.

Shuttered: EU ditches summit 'family photo'

Yahoo – AFP, March 10, 2017

EU leaders pose for a family photo during the European Summit at the
EU headquarters in Brussels on June 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/JOHN THYS)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU has ditched the traditional "family photo" of leaders at Brussels summits as it seeks a more modern image for the bloc, European sources said.

Until the end of last year, the 28 European Union leaders gathering for their regular meetings would pose together for photographers in what was meant to be a show of unity.

But news organisations have been told by the European Council, the body that arranges summits, that as of the latest meeting on Thursday and Friday, the family photo is no longer taking place.

"Part of the idea was to have a more modern visual image" than just the leaders lined up in rows, a senior diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The decision was also part of efforts by European Council chief Donald Tusk, who was re-elected on Thursday, to "streamline" summits that often drag late into the night, the source said.

"These photos can actually take quite a lot of time."

EU institutions were trying to offer photographers more time to take pictures of leaders as they get down to business in the summit room, the source said.

The decision comes as the EU is divided on many fronts, with Poland reacting furiously at this summit after leaders re-elected former Polish premier Tusk as EU chief despite objections from Warsaw.

Sources denied it was political at a time when the EU is about to start hosting official summits with both the full 28 members but also at 27 -- when Britain is barred from talks on its impending exit from the union.

Family photos are a tradition at summit meetings of many organisations around the world, often offering a light-hearted moment before leaders discuss serious issues.

It can also be a glimpse into the personal politics and body language behind the political spin as the leaders gather together in one place.

Famously, leaders at the APEC Asia-Pacific summit dress up every year in the national costume of the host country, leading to the sight of US and Russian presidents wearing colourful outfits from around the region.

The EU's own photo opportunities have not always worked out in the past, with leaders being mocked for going on a ride on a huge luxury yacht in Malta in February during a summit focused on the migration crisis in which thousands of people have drowned in the Mediterranean.

Ukraine peace roadmap agreed, but Europe sceptical

Yahoo – AFP, Max Delany and Ania Tsoukanova, with Nicolas Miletitch in Donetsk, Ukraine, 12 Feb 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre) shakes hands with his Ukrainian

 counterpart Petro Poroshenko during a meeting in Minsk, on February 11,

2015 (AFP Photo/Andrey Stasevich)

Minsk (AFP) - A new peace roadmap aimed at ending the 10-month war between Ukraine and pro-Moscow rebels was agreed in Belarus Thursday, but Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that "big hurdles" remained.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged from the summit in the Belarussian capital Minsk, saying he, Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had agreed on the "main" points.

The 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine

 has already killed at least 5,300

 people, according to the United Nations

 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)

Putin said a ceasefire would take effect at midnight Kiev time on Sunday (2200 GMT on Saturday) and that heavy weapons would be withdrawn from frontlines of the conflict, which has already killed at least 5,300 people and driven a million people from their homes.

Hollande, described the deal as "a comprehensive political solution", while Merkel spoke only of a "glimmer of hope".

"I have no illusions. We have no illusions," she said, adding that "much work" remained.

Hollande, Merkel and Poroshenko flew from Minsk to Brussels for a European Union summit, where the French leader said that it was essential to keep up pressure to ensure the accord's success.

"The next few hours will be decisive as it could go either way," Hollande said at an EU summit in Brussels fresh from the peace talks in Minsk, adding: "We will have to remain vigilant, to maintain the pressure and to press ahead."

British Premier David Cameron said Putin should not expect any change to current sanctions against Moscow by the 28-nation EU unless he really changed his behaviour.

A man walks past an unexploded rocket

 in in the eastern Ukrainian city of

 Kramatorsk, on February 11, 2015 

(AFP Photo/Volodymyr Shuvayev)

"If this is a genuine ceasefire then that would be welcome but what matters most of all is actions," he added.

Toll mounts

The roadmap -- meant to ease a crisis that has plunged the West and Russia into their bitterest dispute since the Cold War -- was signed by the so-called "contact group".

This comprises the pro-Russian separatist leaders, Russian and Ukrainian envoys, and European mediators from the OSCE.

A previous truce signed in Minsk last September quickly collapsed.

The latest talks were seen as a last opportunity for European leaders to save nearly bankrupt Ukraine from ever-widening defeats at the hands of rebels said by Kiev and the West to be armed and trained by Russia.

Even as the deal was agreed, Kiev and rebel sources said fighting over the last 24 hours had killed 14 civilians and two Ukrainian soldiers.

The Ukrainian government also accused Russia of deploying another 50 tanks across the border overnight, with fighting expected to continue around disputed railway hub Debaltseve, which rebels claim to have surrounded.

Putin said that up to 8,000 Ukraine troops were surrounded at Debalseve and rebels expected them to lay down their arms.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

 looks on during a press conference after

 a summit in Minsk, on February 12, 

2015 (AFP Photo/Maxim Malinovsky)

The Ukrainian military however denied the troops were blocked but said fighting was continuing ahead of the ceasefire.

In rebel-held Donetsk, weary residents expressed little optimism.

Money and guns

"I don't believe in it at all," said Lyubov, 62, who would not give her last name. "Every time they sign an agreement, they say one thing and do another. I no longer trust anyone."

Beset by war and corruption, Ukraine's pro-Western government is struggling to enact legal and economic reforms that would help steer the former Soviet republic out of Russia's sphere of influence and into Western institutions.

The Kiev government got a major boost Thursday with the announcement by IMF chief Christine Lagarde of a new financial rescue plan worth $17.5 billion.

In total, Ukraine will receive $40 billion (35 billion euros) in assistance over four years coupled with bilateral loans from other sources, Lagarde said, helping to stabilise Kiev's finances after 10 months of conflict in the east.

The fate of Ukraine, however, may be decided on battlefields in the east, where heavily armed rebels have recently made big gains against outgunned government forces.

A woman walks past a building destroyed

 in the clashes in Dokuchajevsk, on 

Febuary 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Dominique Faget)

The new Minsk agreement is broadly similar to the first one, except that the new heavy weapons-free zone will be 50 to 70 kilometres (31-43 miles) wide, depending on the range of the weapon, double the width of the buffer zone agreed in September.

Kiev will also begin retaking control over the approximately 400 kilometre (250 mile) stretch of Russia's border with rebel-held Ukraine, but only after local elections are held.

The border is entirely under Russian and pro-Russian rebel control and is used, according to Kiev, as a conduit for separatist supplies. The Kremlin denies this but has opposed Ukraine being allowed to regain control of the frontier.

While heavy weapons must be withdrawn, troops and rebels can remain where they are, handing rebels de facto control of the roughly 500 square kilometres of territory they've gained in recent weeks.

Separatist-held territories will be granted a degree of autonomy to be established through talks, and the right to decide which language they use.

Good to meet president @Poroshenko of #Ukraine ahead of today's informal #EUCO, as he will brief us on #MinskSummit. pic.twitter.com/RKCfWs2wZ5
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) February 12, 2015

Related Article:

Relief, skepticism in Brussels following Ukraine ceasefire deal

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The UN Security Council in New York, unanimously approved the resolution

which was co-sponsored by more than 35 countries (AFP Photo/Evan Schneider)

Pressure at summit grows to ease EU sanctions against Russia

EU leaders at their summit in Brussels are defending tough economic sanctions against Russia, but pressure to ease their stance is growing. DW's Christoph Hasselbach reports from Brussels.

Deutsche Welle, 18 Dec 2014

It's the first time the new EU Council President Donald Tusk (pictured above) has hosted an EU summit. The former Polish prime minister has taken part in many of these meetings as leader of a member state, but in his new role he feels, as he frankly put it, "like a debutant with stage fright." His English is still a bit broken, but his expertise and resolve are generally acknowledged. He will need both for the two most important items on the summit's agenda: how to deal with Russia in the Ukraine crisis and how to put together an investment package for Europe's still weak economy.

Tough and responsible

Jean-Claude Juncker has put forward
a 315-billion-euro investment plan to
stimulate the economy

Many have expected Mr. Tusk, whose home country feels directly threatened by Russia, to take a particularly hard line on Moscow, but he was striking a rather balanced note when he told journalists in Brussels, "we will not find a long-term solution for Ukraine without a both tough and responsible strategy towards Russia."

As for the tough part, the EU has already imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Russia and has just added punitive measures specifically directed towards Crimea, which Russia annexed earlier this year. The EU must show, as Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said, "that we do not recognize the annexation of Crimea."

Russia's policies regarding Ukraine have
created an uproar among EU member
states

On the responsible side, the EU wants to keep incentives for Russia in place: If Moscow cooperates on Ukraine, as the French President Francois Hollande said, "then there is no need for new sanctions - on the contrary, in that case we should think about how we, too, could begin to de-escalate."

Russia's plight "not good news"

France is clearly interested in a de-escalation, not just for political, but also for trade reasons. Because of the stand-off with Russia over Ukraine, the French have had to suspend indefinitely the delivery of two war-ships to Russia, worth more than a billion euros.

Most EU countries are suffering losses in their trade with Moscow but they also feel they just have to pay the price to defend they values. The Russian economy is suffering more, though. Partly also by the low oil price, the ruble has plummeted, foreign investment in Russia has gone down, state revenues have dropped sharply.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite sees this as ample proof that "our sanctions are starting to work." But the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini stressed sanctions were not an end in itself but had been imposed to change Russia's behaviour: "The fact that Russia is in a difficult situation from a financial point of view is not good news, not for the Russian citizens, not for Ukraine and not for Europe and the rest of the world."

Double split

Until now, European unity on the sanctions front has been upheld only with difficulty. There are those, particularly in the east of the EU, who once belonged to the Soviet Union, who want an even tougher stance towards Russia. Others would rather ease sanctions. They think Russia shouldn't be provoked too much and that sanctions are bad for everybody and will not change President Putin's course. This split is growing with every month that the confrontation continues.

But there is another rift, and that is about economic policy. Many EU countries are still suffering from high unemployment and low growth. In order to inject new stimulus into the European economy, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has put forward a huge 315 billion euro investment plan, which EU leaders have already backed. The question, though, is, where this money will come from. Most of it will be private money, as Mr. Juncker has explained to sceptical northern countries, like Germany, where many people fear new debts.

In hard-pressed southern economies, however, the plan has created new hopes for big public investment programs. So this plan has already rekindled the old ideological dispute that has raged in the EU right from the beginning of the economic crisis: state investment versus austerity and reform.

And this European family dispute is not going to go away any time soon, and certainly not for Christmas.

Poland's Donald Tusk takes over as EU Council president

Poland's Donald Tusk has taken over as European Council president, charged with convening summits of the bloc's 28 leaders. The former Polish premier has promised "ruthless determination" to fix Europe's economy.

Deutsche Welle, 1 Dec 2014

Tusk, a centrist, was handed a summit bell by Belgium's Herman Van Rompuy on Monday, becoming the first person from the former East bloc to head the European Council.

As council president, Tusk completes the EU's new trio - alongside Luxembourg's Jean Claude Juncker, who is chief of the European Commission, and the foreign affairs coordinator, Federica Mogherini of Italy.

Van Rompuy described Tusk as the "favorite son of Poland" with an "open heart," adding that he was now at the helm of the EU's "most important institution."

Tusk, who studied history and follows football keenly, began his political career in the 1980s as part of Poland's Solidarity union movement, whose protests contributed to the collapse of Soviet-style communism.

He was twice elected prime minister in Poland's post-communist era. He led Poland's center-right Civic Platform from 2001 for 13 years.

EU facing threats

At a handover ceremony in Brussels, Tusk said he would focus on protecting Europe's fundamental values from threats "coming from outside and inside."

"Today not only are euroskeptics questioning the EU's values, we have also enemies," he said, referring to anti-EU parties and presumably Russia,although he did not elaborate.

Poland, like Baltic nations such as Latvia, fear Russian designs on former Soviet countries following Moscow's recent military intervention in Ukraine.

"Relations between Europe and the United States are the backbone of the community of democracies," he said, adding that Europe had to support those neighbors "who share our values."

"The year ahead will be crucial," he added.

Tackle economic crisis

The 57-year-old vowed to help rescue Europe's economy from near deflation and high unemployment in member nations such as Spain.

"We need ruthless determination to end the economic crisis," he said.

He also called for the completion of the European monetary union. Poland does not yet use the euro single currency.

When still Polish premier, Tusk promoted Poland's integration into the EU, unlike his predecessor Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Relations with Germany, once wrought by World War II, have also warmed. Tusk and Chancellor Angela Merkel are said to have a good working relationship.

Since being picked as prospective council president by EU leaders in August, Tusk has been brushing up his English - a skill needed to reach summit consensus.

ipj/mkg (AFP AP, dpa)

German Socialist Martin Schulz elected new EU parliament president

Yahoo – AFP, 1 July 2014

German politician Martin Schulz -- the leader of the European Socialist' (PES) bloc --

 delivers a speech at the European Parliament in Brussels, on May 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/

John Thys)

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - German Social-Democrat Martin Schulz was elected on Tuesday to head the European Parliament in the first session since elections in May.

Schulz, outgoing president of the last European Parliament, won 409 votes for and 314 against or blank ballots, in a session that was marred by eurosceptic opposition.

"Great honour and responsibility to be the voice of the Parliament of EU citizens," Schulz tweeted. "We'll keep strengthening this house to the benefit of all."

Marking the start of the parliament's five-year mandate, his re-election in a secret ballot was the first order of business since Europe-wide elections on May 25 returned an unprecedented number of anti-EU lawmakers.

As the session opened, dozens of eurosceptic members stood up and turned their backs on the EU flag as Beethoven's "Ode To Joy", the bloc's anthem, rang across the chamber.

The flag and anthem "are both symbols of our servitude inside a political union which the British people reject," said the deputy leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Paul Nuttall, which outscored mainstream parties in Britain during the May vote.

The result of that vote brought a clear message that Europeans were increasingly fed up with the 28-nation bloc, blamed for painful austerity measures and a flagging economy.