Europe’s leaders, shaken by the rise of Donald Trump and the continued belligerence of Vladimir Putin, will seek to forge a new vision for the EU with greater unity on foreign policy and higher spending on defence, during a summit in Malta on Friday.



A leaked “concept paper” drawn up by the European council, whose members comprise the 28 EU states, warns that the union is at “a historical turning point, experiencing dramatic challenges both from within and outside”.

The paper says: “Externally, globalisation based on cooperation and competition is giving way to increasing rivalry, confrontation and even conflict, putting into question the fundamentals underpinning the rules-based international order.

“We are also facing important internal challenges as exemplified by Brexit. In these times of global tectonic changes the EU needs strength and determination to keep unity and to better respond to the expectations of its citizens in the areas of security, economy and social inclusion.”

In late March, the member states will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the EU at a summit in Rome and, after a morning session of talks in Malta on Friday, where leaders will discuss migration through the central Mediterranean, they will be asked to reflect on the EU’s long-term future.

The European council’s paper for the summit sets out the goals for the afternoon talks, to which Theresa May has not been invited. The paper says that member states should “renew cooperation” and use the upcoming summit to produce a ‘Rome declaration’ committing member states to more political consolidation not less. The talks in Malta’s capital, Valletta, will be the first step towards that goal, an EU source said.

According to the document, leaders will be asked to reflect on the need for the EU to be a “strong global actor with greater unity in foreign policy and more investments in our defence”.

This week, the president of the European council, Donald Tusk, voiced the security concerns felt within Europe since Trump’s election. “We cannot surrender to those who want to weaken or invalidate the Transatlantic bond, without which global order and peace cannot survive,” Tusk wrote in a letter to leaders. “We should remind our American friends of their own motto: United we stand, divided we fall.”

A senior EU source said Trump’s election, and his behaviour since arriving in the Oval office, was likely to be discussed by EU leaders at a working lunch and again later in the afternoon.

The source said that, while the EU needed to reflect on its future, it did not do so “in a vacuum”. He said May was likely to be asked to brief her fellow EU leaders on her recent visit to Washington. It will be an opportunity for “leaders who have had contact with the new president of the US to debrief” the rest, he said.

The “Rome declaration” is unlikely to contain any detail on how the EU will consolidate in the coming years, but will offer a strategic vision, according to one senior European council source.

However, in December, the European parliament’s constitutional affairs committee submitted one vision of the future, in which an EU foreign minister would be established to represent the remaining 27 members in the UN, once the UK had left the bloc.

A European Defence Union, comprising member states’ armies, would also be formed to enable it to act “autonomously in operations abroad”, and there would be a European intelligence office, which has been endorsed by parliament and is under consideration at commission level.

“Only by enhancing the Common Foreign and Security Policy can the EU provide credible answers to the new security threats and challenges, and thus fight terrorism and bring peace, stability and order to its neighbourhood,” the document detailing the plan claims.

However, some within EU institutions have called for caution. In an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, the commission vice-president, Frans Timmermans, said it was not the time for “more treaties” and “new structures”.

He said: “I’m not sure that would be at this stage the right response, because you can only invite people to dream of a brighter future if you are at least credible on your ability to solve some of the problems of today.”