They will take no decision, neither on Greece, nor on Ukraine. At today's summit, the 28 leaders will rather tackle the ongoing topic of terrorism.
OnGreecefirst:Talks between Greece and its Eurozone creditors broke down early Thursday without even a plan of action on how to move forward on the country's debts and bailout, but markets were buoyant on hopes that a deal will be reached in time for Greece to avoid a potential exit from the euro.
Following an emergency meeting of the Eurozone's 19 finance ministers inBrussels, the two sides failed to even issue a statement, a sign they will need to yield some ground if a compromise deal is to be reached at a follow-up meeting on Monday.
Alexis Tsipras, Greece's new prime minister, attending his first summit of EU leaders, conceded that a solution will have to be based on an element of give-and-take by both sides.
"We will need to find a solution that respects the positions of all parties, so this agreement will have to be based on the core values of Europe, democracy and the vote of the people, but also on the necessity to respect the European rules," he said.
As forUkraine, the leaders will simply be briefed by Angela Merkel and François Hollande. On Thursdaymorning, the International Monetary Fund announced in Brussels that it has agreed with Ukraine on a new bailout deal worth 15.5 billion euro ($17.5 billion) that could climb to around $40 billion over the next four years with help from other lenders like Europe and the U.S.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Thursday that "this new program offers an important opportunity for Ukraine to move its economy forward at a critical moment in the country's history."
The announcement came just before leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany emerged from marathon talks to announce a peace deal for eastern Ukraine.
Having Greece and Ukraine off their hands for this summit,European Union leaders will today debate "a range of steps to to combat terrorism", including exchanging airliner passenger manifests, tightening controls at the border and combating extremism on the Internet.
"Europe is facing an unprecedented, diverse and serious terrorist threat," Gilles de Kerchove, the bloc's counter-terrorism coordinator, told EU member governments in a report last month.
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, whose nation holds the EU's six-month revolving presidency, said Tuesday the often fractious members had reached broad consensus on what actions to take, and share the "strong will" to implement them.
But Wednesday, an EU official, briefing journalists on condition he not be identified by name or function, said work was still going on to finalize the list of recommended actions to be submitted to the leaders at the summit for their approval.
Finally, the EU leaders will also consider a better coordination among existing institutions like Europol, Eurojust — the EU-wide agency of prosecutors, police and investigating magistrates — and the bloc's counter-terrorism coordinator.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/eu-council-pointless-summit