{"id":447589,"date":"2026-03-13T13:31:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/13\/lue-alla-prova-della-crisi-energia-competitivita-e-medio-oriente-nellagenda-del-vertice\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:19:30","slug":"u-put-to-the-test-by-the-crisis-energy-competitiveness-and-the-middle-east-on-the-summit-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/13\/u-put-to-the-test-by-the-crisis-energy-competitiveness-and-the-middle-east-on-the-summit-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"EU put to the test by the crisis: energy, competitiveness and the Middle East on the summit agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Escalation in the Middle East<\/strong>, the launch of the “One Europe, One Market<\/strong>” agenda for strategic competitiveness, the debate on the EU budget for 2028\u20132034<\/strong>, and support for Ukraine<\/strong>: these are the items on the agenda for the European Council meeting on\u00a0Thursday and Friday (19\u201320 March)\u00a0set out\u00a0in the invitation letter<\/a> that President Ant\u00f3nio Costa<\/strong> sent to the leaders of the EU-27. This comes amid growing international tension.<\/p>\n

As in previous meetings, the President of the European Council aims to conclude the proceedings in a single day,\u00a0promising a packed agenda ranging from energy security to the reorganisation of internal markets.\u00a0The central item on the agenda will be the military escalation in the Middle East<\/strong>. \u201cThe military escalation in the Middle East is causing global instability, and its negative consequences are already being felt in Europe,\u201d Costa emphasises, referring to energy prices <\/a>\u00a0and security of supply. \u201cTogether, we must identify the instruments we need to mobilise to ensure a timely, coordinated and effective response that protects our citizens and our companies, while at the same time working towards de-escalation and stability in the region,\u201d\u00a0the President of the European Council added.<\/p>\n

In addition to the energy issue, the Council aims to translate the discussions of the Alden Biesen informal council<\/a>\u00a0into concrete action through the new “One Europe, One Market<\/strong>” agenda: a strategy for competitiveness and strategic autonomy. \u201cThe overall purpose of this agenda is to strengthen European competitiveness, enhance our strategic autonomy and reinforce the foundations of our social model,\u201d Costa said. \u201cThe implementation of these measures, taken together, will contribute to our prosperity and the overall affordability of daily life for our citizens, and make the European Union more resilient to future crises. All of this requires clear and sustained political guidance from the European Council, in March and beyond,\u201d he added. In this context, the\u00a0Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028\u20132034 <\/strong>will play a decisive role as it\u00a0\u201cwill be the main instrument at our disposal for common strategic action.\u201d It is a complex issue on which Costa hopes for \u201chonest discussion about how we can match our ambitions with the appropriate level of financing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine, of course, remains at the table. The summit will open with a speech by President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>, and the message will be clear: the EU\u2019s “steadfast” support for Kyiv and \u201cincreasing pressure on Russia until it engages in meaningful negotiations towards peace remains essential.\u201d The leaders will also address \u201cthe worrying situation in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank\u201d, and for this item on the agenda, Costa has invited the United Nations Secretary-General, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/strong>, \u201cto a working lunch to discuss the deteriorating international situation and how the European Union, working with its partners, can act to defend multilateralism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other issues, there is the issue of\u00a0European defence.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIt will be crucial to review ongoing efforts to increase our defence readiness,\u201d and \u201cwe need to continue to push for rapid progress in strengthening the Europe of defence \u2013 including in its industrial dimension \u2013 as a fundamental component of Europe\u2019s strategic autonomy.\u201d The leaders will also talk about migration,\u00a0an issue that remains \u201ca priority,\u201d and \u201cthe worsening situation in the Middle East reminds us of the need to move forward with our asylum and migration agenda.\u201d Finally, \u201cI have invited European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis to share their economic analysis in the framework of a Euro Summit in inclusive format.\u201d Proceedings will begin at 10 am on Thursday with the traditional exchange between the heads of state and government and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the \u2018One Europe, One Market\u2019 agenda for industrial autonomy to the 2028\u20132034 budget, leaders are seeking to strike a balance between economic recovery and international security<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7901,"featured_media":447565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25716],"tags":[26324,27047,27335,31148],"class_list":["post-447589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-eu-en","tag-council-en","tag-european-agency-defense-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447631,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447589\/revisions\/447631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}