Outcomes of the 21-22 October European Council

The October European Council summit took place in a particularly intense week for EU politics, which also included the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg and the presentation of the European Commission’s work programme for 2022. It was also the last European Council to be attended by Germany’s outgoing Chancellor, Angela Merkel, marking an ever-important moment in European politics.

Against this backdrop, EU leaders had a packed agenda on their table, including covid-19 coordination, trade, digital transformation, migration, external relations and energy prices. The latter, together with discussions on rule of law, proved to be extremely contentious and overshadowed most of the other topics. 

Our team looked at the main takeaways of the Summit, in particular:

• The EU leaders’ response to the energy crisis;
   
• Rule of law and next steps in the heated debate between Brussels and Warsaw.