Van Rompuy meets Juncker in Luxembourg

As the previous financial ministers meeting in Senningen Castle that took place on 6 May was shrouded in secrecy and controversy, this time the affair was different. Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker and President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy met at Senningen Castle to run through their “shopping” list of issues together.

Croatia already?

While Croatia has been given the green light to enter the EU by most of the government heads of state, the stand point from the Netherlands still remains unclear as the Hague criticised Zagreb for not quite meeting with EU standards

The Justice Commissioner for the EU Viviane Reding however, stated that the EU Commission considers Croatia to be fully “ripe” for EU pickings.

Greek debt

On Tuesday Juncker and Van Rompuy also exchanged views on further action to be taken to defuse the Greek debt crisis. Van Rompuy had met Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou, the day before in Brussels.

Juncker appealed to Athens and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, to organise an “intra consensus” in order to implement the internationally required reforms and privatisations.

Stability Pact

Also under discussion between the two leading EU politicians, was the tightening of the Stability Pact and trade union protests against it. Last Thursday the European Parliament voted in Brussels to finally transfer a new framework of budgetary sovereignty down to a community level.