Before Tackling Trump, New EU Leader Aims to End the Bickering in Brussels
During a break in proceedings at February’s European leaders’ summit, the Dutch premier approached his Portuguese counterpart with a can of beer and a smile.
Mark Rutte handed over a popular Belgian brew to Antonio Costa with an acknowledgment that the government in Lisbon had surprised him, according to a person with knowledge of the exchange. After Portugal’s public debt hit 134% of GDP during the pandemic, Costa had bet his fiscally conservative colleague that he’d get it back below 100% and, to the Dutchman’s amazement, he’d managed it.
When the leaders gather in December, Costa will be in charge of proceedings as the newly installed president of the European Council, and he’s going to need to keep exceeding expectations of skeptical colleagues to survive the storms that await him.
The 63-year-old takes up his position as one of the bloc’s two most senior figures at a perilous time for the European Union, with the Russian army threatening its eastern borders, its companies trailing their American and Chinese rivals, and a hostile president-elect about to return to the White House.
For years, attempts to shore up the EU have been hampered by internal dysfunction: Germany’s three-party coalition collapsed in November after months of paralysis, Emmanuel Macron’s government in France only survives thanks to support of the far right, and pro-Kremlin leaders in Hungary and Slovakia have been obstructing efforts to help Ukraine.
Costa, who the Portuguese president has called “irritatingly optimistic,” is upbeat all the same.
