Ah, the depths of August. The EU capital is a shadow of its usual self.

Parking spaces are easily found. Crossing the Rue de la Loi road in front of the European Commission’s main building is less of an adventure. Commission spokespeople – few in number as they currently are – bounce up to the podium to reveal they have nothing to announce. Self-aggrandizing and/or ‘outraged’ press releases from MEPs are something of a rarity.

And yet, the cogs in Brussels have been turning.

EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski chose this lethargic month to put the feelers out for an EU tax, specifically mentioning a financial transaction or aviation tax. Germany, France and the UK shot it down immediately, though others were more positive. “An EU tax proposal in August,” said one head-shaking diplomat I bumped into earlier this week with a mixture of disdain and, possibly, admiration.

It seems to me that Lewandowski’s idea could hardly have been proposed at a better or indeed worse time. While the general public might be more open than ever before to a financial transaction tax managed by Brussels, it still needs to be sold as such by member states to their citizens. And this while admitting that money that runs to Brussels coffers is, by default, not running into national coffers.

Hardly the ideal economic or political climate for that just now.

Even France resorted to talk of “sovereignty” – a word more usually found on the lips of British politicians. Europe minister Pierre Lellouche, the French contact point for opinions on everything at the moment, said:

“Clearly the idea of a European tax, the power to levy taxes, raises fundamental political issues and would be a very significant transfer of sovereignty.”

So far, Lewandowski is holding his ground (in the original interview with FT Deutschland he had indicated that Berlin might be on board.) But are member states in any way ready to take this step?

Even if could be shown that governments would pay less to Brussels in return for an EU tax administered by the European Commission, the symbolism of the move would be huge. Direct taxation represents the beginnings of a state. That would raise all sorts of questions about democratic accountability and the exact relation of citizens to the EU. Questions that neither the commission or many member states are keen on raising.

…..

Fighting talk
August in Washington.  It’s a barren month stateside too. But still the famed ‘can-do’ US spirit appeared to have infected Joao Vale de Almeida, the  EU’s new ambassador to the US. In an interview with the Washington Post and Agence France Presse last week, the Portuguese official-turned-high-ranking-diplomat was loudly proclaiming the letter of the Lisbon law.

“I do not wish or will impose myself on the member states’ ambassadors … Where we have a common position, I am the one leading the show. Bilateral matters are the mandate of the 27 [EU member state] ambassadors.”

Fighting talk indeed, given the nature of the EU. I suspect such authority will have to be earned and cannot simply be plucked from the Lisbon Treaty, no matter how black and white it appears on the page.

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A summit after all

And some uplifting news. The EU and the US do have something to talk about after all. The EU has been smarting ever since Washington pulled out of a planned early summer bilateral summit depriving many an EU politician – particularly Spanish PM Zapatero – of a pleasing photo op. US officials subsequently let it be known that Barack Obama does not do stroking of fragile egos, not even ‘shared-values’ European ones, just for the sake of it. His unsentimental approach means the agenda of the meeting must at least have a hint of substance.

The solution, alluded to at the time, is rather neat. Obama is over anyway for the Nato summit in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon so the EU-US conflab has been tacked onto the end of that meeting (20 November).

It also means that there while there will be a bilateral summit on European soil this year, it won’t (thankfully) be in Belgium, which is currently in post-election coalition negotiations, and, on past form, could still be in this state by the time November rolls round. (Belgium is both in charge of the EU presidency and now the default country for such summits). Meanwhile, there is sufficient time to think up a magnificent agenda.