Stepping stone to an ambitious deal? – the results of an ‘intermediate summit’ – Post-Summit Analysis

The October European Council was a relatively drama-free stepping stone on the way to a much more decisive meeting of EU leaders in December. Almost three years after the outbreak of the crisis, the prospects for the euro zone’s future look much more promising today than they did before the summer, but this Post-Summit Analysis by Janis A. Emmanouilidis warns that the easing of tensions on the financial markets is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the crisis has pushed governments to do things which seemed impossible only a few years ago; on the other, there is a constant fear that the ‘crisis snowball’ could eventually trigger a financial, economic, social and political avalanche big enough to bury the European project. The biggest risk now is complacency: the EU needs to sign up to an ambitious and detailed agenda for a ‘Genuine Economic and Monetary Union’ in December.