Europaudvalget 2016-17
Uformelt møde i Det Europæiske Råd 29/9-17 Bilag 1
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European Council
The President
Brussels, 21 September 2017
Dear colleagues,
Prime Minister Ratas has asked me to chair our dinner ahead of the Tallinn Digital Summit, which
is why I am writing to you.
On 29 June 2016, a few days after the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, we decided to begin a
reflection on the future of a European Union of 27 Member States. The first meeting devoted to
this, in September 2016, resulted in the Bratislava roadmap. We agreed to focus our attention on
the issues of most immediate concern to our citizens: migration, security as well as economic and
social matters. We further developed this agenda in Malta and in Brussels this year, leading to the
Rome declaration, which outlined a more comprehensive vision for the years to come.
In parallel, we set out to deliver on this agenda also during our regular European Councils. We
managed to sort out several issues, which is why the situation in Europe is better today and we
can look to the future with more optimism. On migration, we focused first on the Eastern
Mediterranean Route, then the Central Mediterranean Route, regaining control of our external
borders and bringing down the number of irregular migrants and deaths at sea. On security, we
continued to strengthen our instruments against terrorism and made important progress on
European defence, including in cooperation with NATO. On the economic front we embarked on a
reorientation of our trade policy so that negative effects of globalisation are mitigated. We are
maintaining high ambitions in terms of market opening (trade agreements with Canada and Japan)
while strengthening the robustness of our response to unfair trading practices.
On each of these issues, we still have important and hard work ahead of us. We need to
consolidate our external migration policy, improve our capacity for returns and reach durable
solutions on a reformed asylum system. We must continue to strengthen European defence, in the
first instance by launching the Permanent Structured Cooperation in December. Equally, we need
to continue to improve our economic base, including through the digital single market (Tallinn
summit), while ensuring that it is socially balanced (Gothenburg summit in November).
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 Uformelt møde i Det Europæiske Råd den 29. september 2017 - Bilag 1: Brev til stats- og regeringschefer forud for det uformelle topmøde i Tallinn den 29. september 2017
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We must also decide on the further development of the Euro. There is no silver bullet to complete
the Economic and Monetary Union once and for all. But I am convinced that we have the obligation
to improve the functioning of the EMU and strengthen it step by step. Our priority should be to
complete the Banking Union in line with the agreed roadmap so that the euro area is strengthened
structurally. This means that we have to prepare a common backstop to the Banking Union, to
advance further risk reduction and pave the way for a European deposit insurance scheme. We
should also enhance Europe's capacity to act, which could involve developing the ESM towards a
European Monetary Fund. A number of ideas on governance and budgetary resources specific to
the euro area have been introduced, on which much more discussion will be needed. In order to
advance this agenda I will call a Euro Summit in December in an inclusive format. Concrete
decisions on these issues should be taken at the European Council by June next year at the latest.
At the same time, we should continue to develop the international role of the Union, in our
neighbourhood as well as at the global level. In the October European Council I suggest that we
discuss our reaction to developments in relations with Turkey, and in May next year I propose, in
agreement with Prime Minister Borisov, that we gather in Bulgaria for a Western Balkans summit.
Trade will also remain an important priority for our work.
Looking beyond these immediate priorities, we have a big task in front of us when it comes to the
next multiannual EU budget. This discussion, which will shape our policies for the years to come,
will start in earnest once we have concluded the agreement on the UK's withdrawal. It will be an
important item on our agenda until we reach consensus in time for the entry of the new Multiannual
Financial Framework in 2021.
We cannot deal with, let alone decide on, all these questions in Tallinn. But I do think that this
meeting will be a good opportunity to discuss how we approach this debate, particularly given the
many interesting voices we have recently heard on substance, method as well as objectives. I will
be seeking your guidance with a view to deciding, after our discussion, how to organise the work of
the European Council in this respect. In order to ensure an open, frank and informal exchange on
these issues, there will be no texts on the table, and no written conclusions will be drawn from our
discussion.
Finally, we should all be aware that Brexit remains one of the main tasks for us. This will be the
subject of our next meeting at 27 in October, on the basis of Article 50.
Yours sincerely,
D. TUSK
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