EU leaders must step up at big meeting

EUROPEAN summits are sometimes long-winded, relatively inconsequential affairs, but a two-day meeting starting Feb 9 could be different. There is growing acknowledgement across the continent that decisions in the coming months will define the longer-term economic and political character of the bloc well into the 2020s, and potentially beyond.

For the European Union (EU) is going through a far-reaching period of change, as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fast approaches. On this week’s agenda is not just the conflict but also the massive new green industrial plan proposals announced last week, plus also migration policy.

On Ukraine, Brussels intends to mark the 12-month anniversary of the war with a big new, 10th package of sanctions. In the words of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, it is going to be “a massive package again with the focus once more on technology that can and should not be used by Russia’s war machine”.