If you are not inside the room when the European Union’s 27 leaders gather for a summit, there tends to be quite a bit of hanging around to be done.
One question will always do the rounds among the waiting diplomats, officials and journalists: “What time do you reckon they will wrap up?”
The national leaders, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and former Portuguese prime minister António Costa, who is president of the European Council, got started just before noon on Thursday.
The meeting of the council, which sets the big-picture policy direction of the EU, was pencilled in to last one day, though leaders were told to keep the early part of Friday free just in case things ran over.
The summit covered EU-US tariff negotiations, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, proposed new sanctions on Russia, defence spending and migration policy.
Details of what is going on in the leaders’ room can be scant. There are a few short breaks where they leave to confer with advisers and diplomats. When the doors close, they will also keep officials updated with the odd WhatsApp message.
At about 8pm on Thursday word got around that things might wrap up in an hour or so, which would have been remarkably quick. The talk was that rather than stopping to eat, the leaders might power through with a view to getting out early.
It wasn’t to be. A dinner of smoked cottage cheese dumplings, duck leg confit and strawberry cheesecake was brought in and the discussions went on for several more hours.
Leaders like the fact that Costa has been limiting the summits to a single day since he took over as chair last December.
But sometimes a row actually needs to be had. The EU has been deferring contentious matters in an effort to keep a loose consensus intact. Taking decisions can be tough when each head of state or government has a veto.
For instance, Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orban has consistently blocked EU efforts to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia. He has also held up talks between Brussels and Kyiv about Ukraine joining the EU in the future. A showdown between Orban and the other leaders is overdue.
The EU did take a leap forward on defence policy in the spring, which Costa and Von der Leyen can hold up as a win. A summit in March approved a plan to significantly increase military spending to deter the future threat from Russia, given the question mark over continued US defence support.
The union can move quickly when it wants to and a crisis does focus minds.
The discussion on Gaza on Thursday was short. There was a sense that entrenched positions would not be moved. Germany, Austria, Italy and Hungary oppose efforts by Ireland, Spain and others to sanction Israel, so the EU remains stuck.
[ Pro-Israel countries to block Irish efforts to sanction Israel at EU summitOpens in new window ]
Other internal reforms have been talked about for years without movement. Proposals to build up a European capital market have gone nowhere because countries don’t want to change their national rules around issues such as insolvency.
Those close to Costa say he will have no problem presiding over crunch summits that run on. The Portuguese politician likes open-ended strategic discussions, rather than having leaders squabbling over the wording of a joint communique issued after each summit.
Leaders spent a record five days and four nights hammering out an agreement on the Nice Treaty reforms in 2000.
There is no need to hole up Taoiseach Micheál Martin, French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and the rest of them in Brussels for that long.
However, the preference to get out of dodge after a single day means several thorny problems still remain on the EU leaders’ table, long after the dinner plates have been cleared away.
