{"id":1449,"date":"2026-02-12T10:40:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1449\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T10:40:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:40:04","slug":"european-union-leaders-gather-in-belgium-for-economic-strategy-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1449\/","title":{"rendered":"European Union leaders gather in Belgium for economic strategy summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 27 leaders of the European Union have gathered in eastern Belgium for an all-day summit dedicated to finding new ways to revive the bloc’s stagnant economy, abolish regulatory barriers, attract investment and stimulate innovation, APA<\/a> reports, citing Euronews.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mission has acquired a renewed sense of urgency as the EU confronts punitive tariffs from the Trump administration and a flood of low-cost imports from China.<\/p>\n

Europe’s global power depends “greatly” on its economic strength, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, warned on the eve of the summit.<\/p>\n

“Competitiveness is not just the foundation of our prosperity but of our security, and ultimately of our democracies too,” von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n

Although leaders agree on the bleak diagnosis, they remain poles apart when it comes to the prescription, suggesting expectations for an impending breakthrough are low.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron called for “future-oriented Eurobonds” to finance strategic projects.<\/p>\n

“The global market is increasingly afraid of the American dollar. It’s looking for alternatives. Let’s offer it European debt,” he said.<\/p>\n

By contrast, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to present a\u00a0joint economic doctrine\u00a0based heavily on deregulation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Netherlands, the Nordics and the Baltic will make the case against the “Buy European” preference, which they see as protectionism in disguise.<\/p>\n

Also participating in the summit are\u00a0Mario Draghi\u00a0and Enrico Letta, two former Italian prime ministers who authored separate reports on the European economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 27 leaders of the European Union have gathered in eastern Belgium for an all-day summit dedicated to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1451,1488,1507,1447,1448,1449,1453,1472,7,595,1463,1495,1499,1493,1478,1462,1496,1459,1479,1477,1465,1500,1468,1467,1494,1475,1489,1509,1512,1510,1506,1469,1504,865,1460,1466,1454,1490,1486,1492,1511,1455,1480,1481,1471,1452,1482,1461,1513,1458,1476,1487,1508,1474,1498,1473,1502,1501,1514,1485,1483,1503,1470,1491,1457,1505,1464,1497,1456,1484,1450],"class_list":{"0":"post-1449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-all-news","9":"tag-amsterdam-news","10":"tag-ankara-news","11":"tag-apa-az","12":"tag-apa-news","13":"tag-apa-az-news","14":"tag-apaaz-news","15":"tag-austria-news","16":"tag-belgium","17":"tag-belgium-news","18":"tag-brexit-news","19":"tag-buckingham-palace","20":"tag-bundestag-news","21":"tag-catalonia-news","22":"tag-council-of-europe-news","23":"tag-eastern-european-countries-news","24":"tag-elysee-palace","25":"tag-european-countries-news","26":"tag-european-court-of-human-rights-echr-news","27":"tag-european-union-news","28":"tag-france-news","29":"tag-france-senate","30":"tag-frg-news","31":"tag-germany-news","32":"tag-great-britain-queen","33":"tag-greece-news","34":"tag-hague-court","35":"tag-iaea-news","36":"tag-illegal-migrants","37":"tag-international-atomic-energy-agency","38":"tag-istanbul-news","39":"tag-italy-news","40":"tag-karabakh","41":"tag-latest-news","42":"tag-latest-news-from-european-countries","43":"tag-latest-news-from-france","44":"tag-lent-az-news","45":"tag-lisbon-news","46":"tag-london-news","47":"tag-madrid-news","48":"tag-migration-news","49":"tag-most-read-news","50":"tag-nato-news","51":"tag-nato-secretary-general","52":"tag-netherlands-news","53":"tag-news-baku","54":"tag-news-from-brussels","55":"tag-news-from-western-european-countries","56":"tag-news-of-illegal-migration-to-europe","57":"tag-news-today","58":"tag-osce-news","59":"tag-paris-news","60":"tag-pkk-news","61":"tag-poland-news","62":"tag-pope","63":"tag-portugal-news","64":"tag-pro-armenian-france","65":"tag-pro-armenian-senators","66":"tag-repatriation-news-from-european-countries","67":"tag-rome-news","68":"tag-scandinavian-countries","69":"tag-so-called-armenian-genocide","70":"tag-spain-news","71":"tag-strasbourg-news","72":"tag-todays-news","73":"tag-turkey-news","74":"tag-uk-news","75":"tag-vatican","76":"tag-vesti-az-news","77":"tag-vienna-news","78":"tag-xeber-az"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}