An obviously apologetic and tired Council president Donald Tusk closed the spring EU summit by diminishing the importance of the parallel meeting that he organised during the night between the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and the leaders of Germany and France, in the presence of the of the ECB president Mario Draghi.
“It was not a meeting to take decisions", he insisted, "but an effort to practice a reality check and to avoid misunderstandings.” “We are fully committed to the Eurogroup decisions on 21 February”, he added.
Tusk had been openly criticised by many leaders, mostly by theBelgian prime minister Louis Michel, for the“mini-summit”he organised with Tsipras without informing Greece's other creditors.
The summit ended with a discussion on Libya, during which the EUleaders, concerned about migrants using Libya as a jumping-off point for the continent, tried to find ways to help the conflict-torn country regain stability — but were reluctant to commit to sending troops.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said Europe is "planning all possible ways of supporting, even on the plan of security, a future national unity government." She has said Europe could mount a military and border operation, and help build Libya's police and justice systems.
But many of the EU's 28 member countries are reluctant to send troops or resources while Libya remains unsettled, with rival governments in place.
Libya is the main departure point from Africa for migrants fleeing poverty and war in search of better lives in Europe, and the conflict has raised deep concerns that extremists could also make the crossing.
EU leaders will offer support to U.N. talks between the factions in Morocco, but would not act without an official request from the U.N. or an invitation from Libya itself.
On the margins of the summit, the leaders of France, Britain and Germany also discussed the state of negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
Francois Hollande, David Cameron and Angela Merkel met for that with the EU's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini.
Iran is negotiating in Switzerland with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, with an end-of-March deadline to reach a preliminary deal for Iran to scale back its nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions. Iran insists it is not trying to build a nuclear bomb, but the West is skeptical.
The senior Russian negotiator at the Switzerland talks said European foreign ministers will join the negotiations over the weekend.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/eu-summit-ends-tusk-apologetic-greece