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Results and speeches of the European Council on 26 – 27 October 2023

Oct 28, 2023
European Council President Charles Michel. Source: EU Council

Main results of the European Council, 26-27 October 2023

EU leaders discussed the unfolding situation in the Middle East, continued support for Ukraine and the revision of the EU’s long-term budget 2021-2027.

They also discussed how to boost economic growth in the EU, migration and external relations.

A Euro Summit was held in the margins of the meeting.

 

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine

Ukraine is a priority and will remain a priority.

European Council President Charles Michel, 27 October 2023

EU leaders reiterated their resolute condemnation of Russia’s war and unwavering solidarity with Ukraine and its people.

Over €82 billion overall EU and member states’ assistance to Ukraine

So far, the EU and its member states have made available over €82 billion to Ukraine. They will continue to strongly support Ukraine for as long as it takes, including by economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic means.

Infographic – EU solidarity with Ukraine

See full infographic

 

Refugees

The EU is committed to supporting displaced persons, both in Ukraine and in the EU, including through support to member states who carry the largest burden of the medical, education and living costs of refugees.

In this regard, the leaders welcomed the extension of the temporary protection for displaced persons from Ukraine until March 2025.

 

Military support

The EU and its member states will continue to provide sustainable military support to Ukraine, including through the European Peace Facility, an off-budget fund to prevent conflicts and build peace, the military assistance mission to Ukraine and bilateral assistance.

40 000

Ukrainian soldiers to be trained by the end of 2023

To help Ukraine meet its most pressing military and security needs, EU leaders stressed the need to accelerate the delivery of ammunition, missiles and air defence systems.

To deter acts of aggression and destabilisation efforts in the future, the EU will, together with partners, also contribute to future security commitments to Ukraine.

 

Reconstruction of Ukraine

Noting that Russia is responsible for the massive damage it has caused in the wake of its war, EU leaders expressed their full commitment to Ukraine’s recovery and its reconstruction.

In this regard, EU leaders underlined the importance of determining how any extraordinary revenues held by private entities stemming directly from Russia’s immobilised assets could be used to support Ukraine, consistent with applicable contractual obligations and in accordance with international and EU law. They invited the High Representative and the European Commission to accelerate their work and to submit proposals on this.

 

Accountability of perpetrators

The EU is firmly committed to ensuring that Russia is held fully accountable for its war.

In this context, the leaders called for work to continue on the:

  • tribunal for the prosecution of the crime of aggression against Ukraine
  • establishment of a future compensation mechanism

EU leaders also called for the immediate safe return of Ukrainian civilians, including children, who have been unlawfully deported to Russia and Belarus.

 

Sanctions against Russia

EU leaders stressed the need to further increase pressure on Russia in order to weaken its ability to wage its war, including by:

  • further strengthening sanctions
  • ensuring full and effective implementation of sanctions
  • preventing circumvention of sanctions, especially for high-risks goods

 

Belarus, Iran and North Korea

EU leaders condemned the continued military support for Russia provided by Belarus and Iran. They also urged all countries, particularly North Korea, not to provide material or other support for Russia’s war.

In this context, the EU will intensify its work with partners to counter false Russian narratives and disinformation about the war.

The leaders also expressed their deep disappointment that the Russian parliament had passed a law to withdraw Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

 

Global food security

Russia continues to use food as a weapon, thereby undermining global food security. EU leaders expressed their deep concern about Russia’s unilateral decision to end the implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, its deliberate attacks on Ukraine’s grain storage and export facilities, and its actions to hinder the freedom of navigation in the Black Sea.

In this respect, the leaders expressed their support for efforts to facilitate exports of Ukraine’s grain and other agricultural products to countries in need, including in Africa and the Middle East.

They also called for the capacity of the EU’s solidarity lanes to be further enhanced to facilitate transit and export, and invited the Commission to propose new measures to achieve this.

 

Middle East

In light of Hamas’ brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attack against Israel and the unfolding tragic scenes in the Gaza Strip, EU leaders reviewed the state of play and different strands of action, including concerted efforts to assist EU citizens.

In a follow-up to the statement they released on 15 October 2023 and the extraordinary European Council meeting held two days later, they also reaffirmed their:

  • condemnation of Hamas in the strongest possible terms
  • recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international law and international humanitarian law
  • call on Hamas to immediately release all hostages without any precondition

The leaders underlined the importance of ensuring the protection of all civilians at all times. They also expressed their grave concern regarding the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need, including through humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs.

The leaders stressed that the EU will work with partners in the region to:

  • protect civilians
  • ensure that assistance is not abused by terrorist organisations
  • facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter

To avoid regional escalation, the leaders emphasised the need to engage with partners in the region, including the Palestinian Authority. They also expressed their support for a two-state solution and welcomed diplomatic initiatives, including supporting the holding of an international peace conference soon.

 

Mid-term revision of the EU long-term budget 2021-2027

EU leaders held an in-depth discussion on the mid-term revision of the EU’s long-term budget, the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, including on the most pressing needs and how to finance future priorities.

The MFF provides for the financing of programmes and actions in all policy areas in line with the EU’s long-term priorities. Since it was adopted in 2020, the EU has faced unprecedented and unexpected challenges, from the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine to an acceleration in inflation and interest rates.

Against this background, on 20 June 2023 the Commission presented three legislative proposals to reinforce the EU budget in a limited number of areas.

In this context, EU leaders invited the Council to take forward the work on the mid-term revision with a view to reaching an overall agreement by the end of the year.

 

Economy and competitiveness

The EU needs a strong economic base that ensures its long-term competitiveness and a level playing field both internally and globally, with a fully functioning Single Market and its four freedoms at its core.

European Council conclusions, 26 and 27 October 2023

The European Council underlined the need to accelerate work on:

  • developing the EU’s competitive edge in digital and clean technologies
  • securing a sufficient supply of clean and affordable energy
  • reducing key critical dependencies and diversifying supply chains through strategic partnerships
  • fostering the transition towards a more circular economy

EU leaders also called for:

  • prompt agreement on the critical raw materials act, the net-zero industry act and the reform of the electricity market design
  • swift follow-up to the Commission communication on addressing medicine shortages in the EU, while ensuring better access to medicines and an innovative and competitive pharmaceutical sector
  • work to start on joint risk assessments, in view of the recommendation on critical technology areas
  • the Commission to address distortive effects of tariffs and subsidies by global actors and to work on mitigating the problematic and discriminatory elements of the US inflation reduction act
  • the Council to take work forward on the economic governance review, with a view to concluding legislative work in 2023

 

Migration

EU leaders held a strategic discussion on migration.

Following the recent European Council meeting in Granada, President Michel stressed the importance of immediately addressing irregular migration and called for a comprehensive approach to migration in compliance with international law and EU principles and values.

 

Terrorism

EU leaders strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in France and Belgium, killing and injuring Swedish and French nationals.

The EU is united and firm in the fight against terrorism, hatred and violent extremism of all kinds. In this regard, EU leaders called on the EU institutions and the member states to enhance internal security at national and EU level by strengthening:

  • law enforcement and judicial cooperation
  • information exchanges
  • protection of external borders
  • the fight against smugglers
  • cooperation with third countries

 

Climate change

The increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events highlight the urgency of the global response to the climate emergency.

In view of the upcoming 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, the leaders called for:

  • increased global action and ambition so that global greenhouse gas emissions peak at the latest before 2025
  • broad support for the global renewables and energy efficiency pledge

 

External relations
Belgrade-Pristina dialogue

EU leaders are deeply concerned about the security situation in the north of Kosovo* and strongly condemn the violent attacks against Kosovo police in September 2023. In this context, they called on Serbia to cooperate fully to ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice.

Stressing that the normalisation of relations is essential for them to advance on their respective European paths, EU leaders called on both parties to:

  • de-escalate tensions
  • ensure that new elections in the north of Kosovo are held as soon as possible
  • implement the agreements reached in the EU-facilitated dialogue

 

Armenia-Azerbaijan

EU leaders underlined their continued support for a sustainable and lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, based on the principles of recognition of sovereignty, inviolability of borders and territorial integrity. They also underlined the importance of ensuring the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians, including those who wish to return to their homes.

In this respect, they called on the parties to engage in good faith and finalise the Brussels normalisation process by the end of this year.

 

The Sahel

EU leaders held a strategic discussion on the situation in the Sahel. In view of the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation, the leaders:

  • called for the immediate release of President Bazoum and his family
  • invited the High Representative and the Commission to present options for EU actions and instruments

 

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

Meeting information
  • Brussels
  • 26-27 October 2023
Preparatory documents
Outcome documents

 

Opening remarks by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference with President Michel following the meeting of the European Council of 27 October 2023:

Brussels, 27 October 2023

We had a very dense discussion this morning with a multitude of subjects, so I will choose a few and report on those. Indeed, we started the day with a very good discussion about Europe’s economic competitiveness. And here, I would report on four different strands.

First, it is so important to continue to build on our strengths – and we have many strengths. In other words, we have to focus on the areas where we already have a competitive edge, or where we could take the lead. And for this, our industrial and our energy policies are putting us on the right path. You are familiar with the elements. For example, the Net-Zero Industry Act or the Critical Raw Materials Act. But also now the reform of the electricity market is important to drive the production of renewables up, and thus the energy prices down. And I very much welcome the agreement that we have found this week in Council, so now we can proceed with that reform. And there is the platform, that we called STEP, for strategic investments – part of our proposed revised EU budget. STEP is the fund that we want to create to step up investments in emerging and strategic technologies. And I hope that all these proposals will be adopted soon so that we can kind of start our economic future right now.

My second point is different: Of course, as important as technologies are, so are the people, to work with these technologies. This is something we have also discussed on Wednesday afternoon at the Tripartite Summit. What we need to do – because it is developing more and more into a bottleneck for our economy – is to look at the labour market and the lack of skilled labour or even labour. So the shortages have to be addressed and – we discussed that – we have to tap into the existing potential, and improve the situation. We have a record-low unemployment rate of 6%. But if we look at the different elements of the labour market, we see that we have a much higher youth unemployment. So this is the first task to address.

Then, we see that the female participation is way lower, 12 percentage points lower, than the male participation in the workforce. So here, we have to engage in the important topic of creating the infrastructure to reconcile work and family, like kindergarten and good schools, but also, of course, have reconciliation of work and family in the companies.

The third element, where there is a lot of untapped potential, is the older workers.

And the fourth element we discussed is legal migration. We had last year 3.7 million legal migrants coming to our labour market – and this is very good, and we need more of this. The discussion we have on migration is on the 300,000 or 400,000 irregular migrants. And I will report on this one later. But legal migration is important for our Union, and we will need more of this.

Finally, my third point for the topic of competitiveness. Of course, we have to do our homework in the European Union itself. But we also have to make sure that we have a level playing field globally for our companies. And we have in this context again discussed the Inflation Reduction Act. The immediate macro-economic impact, at the moment being, is minor. But if you look at the sectorial implications, they are measurable. So we need to stay very vigilant, especially when we come now into the phase where we do have the whole legislative framework for the European Green Deal in place.

But now it goes into implementation. And the path to implementation is via guidelines. We have to shape the guidelines now. And to make sure that the clean-tech industries have a competitive advantage in the European Union, it is important that we now listen to them and hear what is crucial for them when we implement the legislation. These are the so-called clean-tech dialogues that we have with our industry. So we go sector by sector to identify where we can support our industry. This big work and more about it should not distract us from the much greater impact of unfair practices that we see by China – also, a part of the discussion.

And I want to conclude with the fact that: Yes, we need a strong economic base to build our future competitiveness. It is a challenge. But what we also need are fiscal rules that can match that challenge. Because sound public finances open the space for more investment. And we should press ahead with the adoption now of our proposed new rules for the European economic governance. Here, I welcome that the Spanish Presidency is working intensively and tirelessly on this matter.

Indeed, at the end of this discussion, we took the opportunity to congratulate Greece for the extraordinary progress it has made over the past years. Regaining investment grade is a significant milestone. And we pay tribute to the Greek people who have made enormous sacrifices but have every reason to feel good. They have been incredibly resilient. Still, a lot remains to be done, but I am confident that Greece will continue on the path of sustainable and inclusive growth.

Now, let me turn to Ukraine. It was very clear in the debate that, despite the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, our focus continues to be on supporting Ukraine. This is why I very much welcome that you invited, yesterday, President Zelenskyy to speak to us via VTC. We will continue delivering the much-needed weapons and ammunition. We will continue providing the much-needed financial relief. Just a figure: Altogether, if you look at Team Europe, we have provided almost EUR 83 billion of assistance to Ukraine. Now, looking forward, the next step is the adoption of the EUR 50 billion Ukraine Facility, because Ukraine needs reliable and predictable financial support. Of course, we will also continue to support Ukraine as it walks the path leading to accession. We will provide our assessment, as you know, on such progress at the beginning of November.

A final word on sanctions. We are in the process of preparing the 12th package of sanctions. We are now in consultation with the Member States. In particular, we are looking into how to cut the remaining revenues that Russia draws from the export of diamonds to Europe and its partners. This would be done in very close cooperation with our G7 partners. And we continue to make sure that our existing sanctions are properly implemented and effectively enforced.

A last point on the immobilised assets of Russia in the European Union. This was also a point of discussion. We all recall that, in March last year, we took collectively the important political decision to immobilise Russian sovereign assets. The value of these sovereign assets stands at EUR 211 billion. And politically, we agreed that ultimately Russia must pay for the long-term reconstruction of Ukraine. We had a recent discussion of Finance Ministers in Marrakesh that allowed good progress on the basic principles. So, the next step would then be an actual proposal. We are currently working on a proposal to initially focus on the so-called windfall profits. In other words, we will present a proposal to find a way how to use the proceeds from those assets that are currently benefitting a limited number of financial institutions in the European Union. These windfall profits are already quite substantial. And the idea is to pool them and then channel them through the EU budget ‘en bloc’ to Ukraine and for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

On migration, there was a strong support for the letter I sent to the Leaders. And I will not reflect on the details of the letter, but on the main message. The main message is that we are making good progress on the two-track approach. On the one hand, it is the legislative track. Here, the discussions on the different pieces of legislation under the Migration and Asylum Pact are advancing well. I would like to thank the Council and the Parliament for this and for all their efforts. And now we must keep up the momentum because we have to adopt this Pact. The other track is the operational work. We are making good progress on the implementation of the 15 priority actions that we discussed in January. We have taken action to address the immediate situation along the different migratory routes that we have. And we have worked on advancing our cooperation with partner countries. This is also now the principle in moving forward.

So first of all, we will focus on preventing irregular departures. For this, we have to increase the capacity of the neighbouring countries for border surveillance and search and rescue. Then we need more outreach to countries of origin and transit. For this purpose, we need to build much more comprehensive and mutually beneficial partnership agreements. As we have discussed, for example, yesterday with Egypt.

Then there is the important topic, which is that we have to crack down on the smugglers and traffickers. In this context, we will present legislative proposals to fight smugglers and traffickers, by the end of November. The legislation that we have in place is 20 years old. So it is high time to update it. And we will reinforce our cooperation with the UN agencies, mostly UNODC. On top, we will soon host an international conference to launch a Global Alliance with a Call to Action against smugglers. To whomever you speak, whether it is a country of origin or a country of transit or a country where the debate on migration is intense, all understand and want to crack down on the cynical business of smugglers and traffickers. This is organised crime. And we have to fight it, like we fight organised crime.

Finally, on returns. As you know, the return rate this year so far has been of 22% of those who have a returned decision. This amount has to increase. Therefore, we offer to Member States much closer cooperation as Team Europe to speed up the procedures to ensure the mutual recognition of return decisions – if you have the decision in one Member State, it is valid for all 27 Member States – and, most importantly, to organise joint return operations.

The better we are in the part that I mentioned at the very beginning – the legal migration, the legal pathways, the investment in education –, the stricter we can be in the part of irregular migration. And this was finally also the conclusion of the debate on migration. I will stop here.

Thank you.

Source – EU Commission

 

 

 

Remarks by European Council President Charles Michel before the European Council meeting of 26 October 2023

26 October 2023

We are holding an important European Council in difficult times. It is crucial to demonstrate once again that the European Union is united in defending our principles, in defending our values, and that’s why we support Israel as it tries to defend itself in line with international law and international humanitarian law. We condemn Hamas and this violent terrorist attack, and we will discuss how we can ensure that there is humanitarian access. We feel that civilians must be protected always and everywhere. We will have a good discussion with the leaders, and I am confident that once again, we will affirm a very strong united position.

It’s also key for us to make it very clear that we will support Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will discuss how we can develop more support, how we can also approach the topic of frozen assets, for instance, to make sure that we mobilise money to support Ukraine, to rebuild Ukraine.

We will also have a discussion on the review of the Multiannual Framework. This is the first exchange of views among the EU leaders. Good preparatory work has been done under the auspices of the Spanish Presidency and I am confident that this meeting today will help the Council to make additional progress and to reach an agreement as soon as possible. We hope by the end of the year to have the review of the MFF. Tomorrow, we will have the Euro Summit and the economic topics in the presence of Christine Lagarde and Paschal Donohoe.

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