BRATISLAVA — Angela Merkel arrived at the Bratislava summit of the EU27 Friday morning with one overarching goal — to present the world a broad display of European unity.

The German leader had spent weeks in the runup to the summit shuttling between Europe’s capitals searching for common ground in the increasingly fractious union.

On paper, at least, the German leader got what she came for in Bratislava. Leaders endorsed a modest blueprint to improve Europe’s security and boost the Continent’s moribund economy. Still, in the end there was no hiding the bloc’s deepening divisions.

What started as an amicable affair, with leaders sticking almost word-for-word to carefully phrased talking points about the need for compromise and unity, ended in discord with Italy’s Matteo Renzi expressing disappointment at the outcome.

“I’m not satisfied with the conclusions,” he said. “I’m not one of those who tell people after a summit that everything will be all right and that the roses are going to flourish.”

Renzi gave voice to what many, both inside and outside the summit, viewed as Merkel’s quixotic attempt to achieve unity while skirting the most controversial issues facing the EU — the refugee crisis and the bloc’s German-inspired fiscal strictures.

Leading up to the meeting, Merkel sought to downplay expectations, insisting the summit was the beginning of a longer process of renewal after the shock of the Brexit vote. But faced with growing doubts over her leadership among Germans, she also couldn’t afford to return home empty handed.

Merkel’s solution for that dilemma is what Berlin and Paris dubbed the "Bratislava Agenda.”

At first glance, the grandiloquent to-do list, unveiled by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to a small group ahead of the meeting under the headline “A European Union that delivers better and faster: The Bratislava roadmap for the next 12 months,” stays true to the EU’s tradition of pie-in-the-sky declarations.

Upon closer study, it becomes clear that most of the measures, whether deploying more border guards to Bulgaria or extending the Commission’s investment plans, are small-bore initiatives, fairly easy to implement, yet unlikely to have any discernable impact on most European lives.

More revealing is what isn’t on the agenda.

The refusal of most members to share the burden of the refugee crisis, a major frustration in Germany and Italy, was missing from the agenda, as was the question of EU spending restrictions on governments (championed by Berlin for struggling eurozone members, but widely blamed for the chronic stagnation across Southern Europe). In other words, the controversial issues driving the political debate in many member countries were left aside.

Merkel denied such topics were off bounds. “Everything was discussed,” she said at a news conference before returning to Berlin. “We didn’t just talk about European history and values.”

Yet Renzi’s comments suggested the discussions didn’t yield any progress.

By avoiding controversial themes to focus on areas of broad consensus, leaders believed the Bratislava summit would send a much-needed “positive signal,” diplomats said. The French and German delegations went to great lengths to portray the meeting as a success, allowing only a handful of pre-agreed questions — two French and two German — at post-summit joint press conference with Hollande and Merkel.

Down the hall, Renzi shattered the illusion of unity. Asked why he didn’t appear together with the French and German leaders, as he has done recently, he was blunt.

“If on some issues both are satisfied with the outcome, I’m happy for them,” he said. “I can’t do a joint press conference with the German chancellor or the French president because I don’t share the conclusions to the same extent than they do.”

The substance of the Italian leader’s critique wasn’t surprising. He faces intense pressure at home to jumpstart the economy and bring the refugee crisis under control. Nonetheless, the public nature of rebuke was unexpected, especially after the efforts Merkel has made in recent months to court him. Last month, Merkel even met with Renzi and Hollande on an Italian aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean to advertise their shared resolve to save Europe.

Berlin was convinced Renzi would prove to be a reliable partner in Merkel's effort to build a broader consensus on reforming the EU. That he isn't illustrates how challenging her task remains.