Costa dials back two-speed Europe debate, says it’s a ‘non-issue’

António Costa, the president of the European Council, watered down expectations of a two-speed Europe as a magic bullet to break the impasse on economic reforms, a day after the proposal came to the fore in an informal summit of EU leaders.

“It’s a non-issue,” Costa said on Friday in a press briefing attended by Euronews.

Several countries, including France, Spain and Denmark, expressed support for using enhanced cooperation to create smaller groups of member states willing to adopt initiatives that could not otherwise be approved due to a lack of consensus.

Enhanced cooperation rose to prominence in December after EU leaders decided to issue a €90 billion loan to Ukraine without the participation of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The legal tool has also been applied in the past in limited cases, as the bloc’s functioning is based on consensus-driven decisions.

A shift would indicate leaders now favour speed over unanimity.

“Enhanced cooperation is not an issue. It doesn’t matter. And nobody discussed this in the room,” Costa said. “We already have different formats in the Union. Some member states are part of Schengen, others are part of the eurozone.”

His comments contrast with the approach outlined by Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, during the summit’s closing press conference.

Von der Leyen highlighted two legislative files for which the legal tool could be considered: the first phase of the Savings and Investment Union, which aims to mobilise dormant private savings into strategic projects, and the 28th regime, which aims to establish a uniform framework to set up companies across the bloc.

Enhanced cooperation for the Savings and Investment Union might be triggered as early as June if “no sufficient progress” is achieved by capitals, she said.

“Often we move forward with the speed of the slowest, and the enhanced cooperation avoids that,” von der Leyen told reporters on Thursday evening.

French President Emmanuel Macron went a step further, saying the European economy needs a new agenda agreed at 27 or through smaller coalitions by the summer.

“What we decided today is that between now and June, we will have to finalise the agenda,” Macron said. “If in June we don’t have concrete prospects and concrete progress, we will continue with enhanced cooperation.”

Council chief bets EU unity is still possible

Still, Costa sought to temper expectations that the EU would radically change the way it operates in the name of speed, suggesting that the necessary unity will eventually materialise over a two-speed Europe where some advance and others do not.

Costa said countries have “doubts” about the “scope” of the 28th regime, which is still to be formally presented, but that there is a “broad” agreement on its need to be adopted to allow entrepreneurs to overcome 27 different corporate regimes.

On the Savings and Investment Union, he noted, there is only one country that still has reservations about the proposal to centralise financial oversight in the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris.

The country, which Costa did not name, is widely believed to be Luxembourg, which has long argued that the supranational integration of capital markets would produce excessive regulation, raise costs for businesses and fail to unlock fresh funding.

“I haven’t seen any good proposals for this so far,” Luxembourgish Prime Minister Luc Frieden said at Thursday’s summit.

Ireland, Malta and Cyprus, small countries with important financial sectors, had also voiced reservations in the past, but they are now considered to be on board.

“My feeling is that it will be possible to move forward without enhanced cooperation. If it is needed, then okay, no problem,” Costa said.

“Some leaders use this to put pressure on other leaders and basically convince one of the founding members of the European Union that he should not be out of the Savings and Investment Union.”

Reflecting on the informal summit, which yielded a tentative commitment to complete the single market by the end of 2027, Costa underscored the “sense of urgency” shared by member states beyond “ideological” debates.

“Everybody understands that we are under pressure from outside because the international rules-based border is under threat, that some economic agents and countries are promoting unfair competition and that we need to act to promote prosperity but also to increase our own security,” he said.