President Donald Tusk has begun his consultations with EU leaders ahead of the informal meeting of heads of state or government in February and the European Council in March. EU’s next long-term budget and eurozone are among the top priorities for spring 2018.
The President of the European Council has already consulted President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Prime Minister of The Netherlands Mark Rutte, Chair of the Visegrad Group and Prime Minister of Hungary Victor Orban, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni and President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė. They discussed various issues such as the Multiannual financial framework, institutional issues and EMU reform.
Now it is high time to build an inclusive pan-European Grand Coalition for an ambitious budget, wise agreement on migration and a better Eurozone.
– Donald Tusk after the meeting with Angela Merkel, 8 February 2018
On 23 February EU leaders will meet informally in Brussels. The meeting takes place under the Leaders’ Agenda. As the discussions are future-oriented, the meeting will be held in an EU27 format.
