European leaders should give a new impetus e

The heads of State and Government of the twenty-five will engage now in a difficult exercise. A short informal Summit, organized by the Finnish Presidency of the Union in Lahti, North of Helsinki, they will try to advance this 'Europe of projects' assumed to respond to the concerns of their citizens. But the subjects they have chosen are among the most complex to treat: immigration, innovation and energy.

The luncheon with the Russian President, Vladimir Poutine, energy issues, do not promises less perilous. The Europeans have decided to speak with one voice with the Russia, in this case the President of the European Council in exercise, the Prime Minister of Finland, Matti Vanhanen, to offer him a "strong and balanced partnership." However, since a few months, the Russian Government cache more willingness to regain control of its energy resources. He challenges in Total who signed in 1995 a deposit of Khar'yakha production sharing agreement, on the grounds that the oil group missed its deadlines, and threatens to block the project led by Shell on Sakhalin for negligence of environmental rules.

More generally, Vladimir Putin's authoritarianism antagonized many Europeans. The crime not elucidated against journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the Russia from the Georgia embargo have marred relations with Europe. The climate is not the most serene to negotiate the future Russia European Union cooperation agreement which will include an energy chapter, in which the Europeans want both Moscow of guarantees of security of supply and investments in Russian deposits without incessant intimidation.

Finalize the European patent

Twenty-five also want guarantees of "transparent and non-discriminatory" use of natural gas pipelines from Central Asia and through the Russia for their distribution undertakings. But Gazprom is sticking to its gas distribution monopoly. It is largely for this reason that Moscow has still not ratified the Charter of the energy (signed 10 years ago) and the Protocol on transit accompanying. And there is no indication that a change of attitude is underway.

Jacques Chirac will propose to its partners two ideas: the appointment, at the European level, of a special representative for energy, and the rapid organization of a summit between the Union and its main energy suppliers.

Conducive to a dialogue of the highest quality with the Russia, the Finnish Presidency also wishes to insist on innovation during the Summit. However, the tracks proposed by Helsinki and Brussels are not new. They date back to the Summit in Lisbon in 2000 and, in ten years, the journey is insufficient (see below). European leaders should give a new impetus, e.g. finalizing European patent, stalled for a decade, and with the addition of a European Institute of technology, supposed to compete with the major American universities. But for fear of a battle on his seat, twenty-five preferred to choose the networking of universities and their centres of excellence.

Better manage the influx of refugees

Finally, at the luncheon, the head of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, will, with the support of the France, a long plea for a European immigration policy. Particularly anxious to better manage the influx of refugees to its maritime borders (27,000 Africans have landed in the Canary Islands since January), he wishes that the Union spends more money, financial and human, to the European Agency for external borders (Frontex). And that the latter progresses in the development of a policy of cooperation with Africa, where most illegal immigrants in Spain are originating. But if the Mediterranean EU countries share the desire to joint management of migration flows, they face resistance from countries such as the Germany, the Austria, the Netherlands, who are reluctant to dispose of their sovereignty.