Instead, they ended up talking about Brexit, again.
That UK lawmakers have spent the last 33 months since the country voted to leave the EU failing to agree on how to do so has thrown multiple spanners into the complicated workings of the bloc, whose leaders desperately need to hash out unified policies on a number of issues, but are instead constantly derailed by the one member state who, at least in theory, doesn’t want to be there.
But there is considerable disagreement within the bloc on how to go about finding this balance, with some members, notably Germany, increasingly hawkish with regard to Beijing, both as an economic and security challenge, while other countries remain eager to embrace Chinese investment.
Italy and China
Italy’s participation in Xi’s project is not only an economic win for Beijing, but potentially creates a wedge for use against the wider EU on key issues in future, said Lucrezia Poggetti, a research associate at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).
“China is very keen to deal with EU nations separately, rather than as a bloc,” she said. “In bilateral relations, China has the upper hand because of its huge economic power compared to individual European countries.”
“In both cases, Greece feared upsetting the Chinese government and potentially losing access to economic opportunities promised by Beijing, so it broke ranks with the EU instead,” Poggetti said. “Hungary has also been more openly close to China politically.”
Chinese carrots
While Beijing has historically stronger ties with some European countries (and weaker ones with those nations that once invaded and colonized it), a recent and evolving dynamic has seen EU members allying with China in intra-union squabbles.
“The problem is that the EU does not have the effective mechanisms to manage serious conflicts between member states, tempting EU nations to call upon external actors to challenge the status quo for them,” he said.
In particular, as hostility to the entire European project spreads, affecting not only the UK but also Italy, Hungary and other member states, the opportunities for China to find willing new partners are increasing.
“It’s even easier for Beijing to drive a wedge between the EU and Eurosceptic governments,” Poggetti said. “The EU needs to prepare for pushback from Italy — an influential member of the EU as a founder of the Union and third largest economy of the Eurozone — on a common European China policy.”
A successful Brexit-ed Britain, buoyed by new trade deals with China, could also embolden other EU states to go their own way.
Jonathan Sullivan, an expert on China at the University of Nottingham, said the “EU’s power, such as it is, in international trade and foreign relations, is predicated on acting in unison.”
“So if any country wants to make inroads in whatever sector in Europe, trying to promote disunity or ‘pick member states off’ and deal with them individually is a powerful strategy,” he said.
“Beijing has had difficulties dealing with the EU in numerous sectors for a variety of reasons, and the incentive to try to weaken the EU’s capacity to act in a concerted, unified way, is strong.”
External pressure
“Trump has tried the method, bashing Germany over defense, dangling long-desired political prizes before Poland and the UK, and lavishing praise on the Italian coalition,” Macaes said.
“Russia is a long-standing but exceedingly clumsy operator. China understands how to insert itself in these debates.”
Tackling this challenge will require something that has been strikingly lacking from European policy in recent years: Unity.
But while external pressure has so far largely fostered greater division, analysts said it could also help drive the bloc together, as EU member states begin to see the costs of dealing with a player as powerful as China alone, and re-embrace the original purpose of bloc-wide policies.
The outside pressure could also help spark long needed reform on just how those policies are made, enabling the EU to benefit all members equally.
European leaders just need to sort out Brexit first. And the refugee crisis. And get through the European Parliament elections. And put in a plan for tackling the effects of climate change. And…
Source : Nbcnewyork