A promise kept

“ For once a European Summit didn't disappoint,” said one analyst yesterday about Wednesday's EU “dinner summit” in Brussels, “they promised nothing and that's what we got.” Once more the EU leaders kicked the can further down the road -- to 17 June when the French and, critically, the second Greek parliamentary elections take place. According to reports from those at the dinner, known positions were repeated but no decisions taken. If anything concrete can be said to have emerged from the table talk it was a hardening of the rift between the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the newly-elected French President Francois Hollande, especially over the latter's campaign for euro bonds which would be guaranteed by the eurozone as a whole. Merkel said it was impossible because it would take ten separate legal changes before Germany could participate in them and, in any case, the bonds would be no more than an economic band-aid. While recognising the importance of France within the EU it is nonetheless remarkable to see a new president with virtually no international experience whatsoever taking such a strong line on so many economic issues in his first few weeks in office. On Wednesday night he repeated his commitment to the creation of an EU financial transaction tax, drawing the comment from David Cameron as he left the dinner, “I'll fight it all the way.”