An informal summit of EU leaders will be held on Thursday, February 12, 2026, at the Alden Biesen castle in Belgium. The President of the European Council, António Costa, convened it to discuss ways to strengthen the single market, reduce economic dependencies and increase the EU's competitiveness in the new geoeconomic context.
Before the talks among the leaders, two separate meetings were planned – with Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, who nearly two years ago – at the request of the European Commission – prepared reports devoted to recipes for saving European competitiveness. They proposed, among other things, strengthening the single EU market.
According to Costa – in the current geopolitical environment, it is, more than ever, an urgent strategic necessity. However, among Draghi's demands – according to the latest calculations of the Brussels EPIC center – only approximately 15 percent have already been implemented. However, the solutions introduced are largely focused on a small number of areas, such as regulating the carbon duty (CBAM) or industrial policy in the field of defense. As well as packages simplifying regulations – including those regarding ESG – the so-called omnibuses.
The common denominator of the topics that will be discussed during the meeting will be how to make Europe more competitive.
In connection with the meeting in Alden Biesen, the Polish Chamber of Chemical Industry, together with European industry organizations, issued an appeal to take urgent actions to rebuild the EU's industrial competitiveness and security. She also sent a letter on this matter to Donald Tusk.
For the Polish government, energy prices are the number one topic
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For the Polish government, energy prices are a key condition for EU competitiveness, including the Polish economy. The ministries of energy and climate have prepared a whole package of demands and proposals for the Prime Minister on this matter.
First of all, they concern the industrial emissions trading system, i.e. ETS1. In this matter, as our sources indicate, Poland is in favor of increasing stability on the market for these allowances. The point is to limit the current scope for speculation on these allowances so as not to increase their prices. There is also a proposal for a price corridor for ETS1 – France also put forward such a request last year. Another expectation of the Polish side regarding ETS1 concerns the maintenance of free allowances for industry – according to the current arrangements, they are to be gradually phased out in the next decade. — We want to stop this fading out – emphasizes our interlocutor.
The next very important postulate for Poland, as we hear, is: another postponement of the implementation of ETS2, i.e. the emission allowance trading system in construction and transport. This fee is intended to cover, among other things, home heating and fossil fuel cars. At the end of last year, it was possible to postpone the entry into force of ETS2 by one year – until 2028. Now Warsaw's goal is to postpone its introduction until 2030.
Poland is also open to a discussion on the EU method of determining energy prices, the so-called merit order (this solution ranks energy sources on the stock exchange from the cheapest to the most expensive). As well as reducing national levies on electricity. As for the latter issue, the room for maneuver is limited by the budget situation, both in Poland and in many other EU countries.
However, as our source points out, “after the analysis, Poland supports – in the longer term – targeted reductions in VAT and excise duty on energy, for example for users of heat pumps or electric cars“.
According to Warsaw, it is also important to speed up the process of obtaining the necessary permits for renewable energy installations (so-called permitting).
Poland also supports maintaining the capacity market (paying power plants for their readiness to supply energy), encouraging dynamic prices – which vary throughout the day, and investing in the modernization and digitization of energy infrastructure.
Commissioner Antonio Costa and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, together with other EU leaders, will talk about saving the EU's competitiveness
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Thierry Monasse / getty images / Getty Images
Another key Polish demand is deregulation
In addition to reducing energy prices, Poland's second key demand in the context of strengthening the EU's competitiveness is deregulation, referred to in the EU as “simplification”. Poland has been strongly raising both of these topics since last year's presidency of the EU Council.
— In terms of competitiveness, we are interested in issues related to simplification of regulations. In some cases, we propose eliminating selected regulations – says one of our interlocutors. As we learn, Warsaw's proposals in this regard refer to the area of reporting, but our sources do not provide details.
Warsaw focuses on strengthening the single market, especially in services
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Poland also consistently supports strengthening the EU's internal market – it is particularly keen on it removing barriers to the flow of services.
As we hear, Poland also “rather supports” the creation of a new 28th legal regime to help companies, especially innovative ones, in increasing the scale of their operations. The idea is for selected companies to have EU status – without the need to register in individual countries. According to our interlocutors, the biggest challenge here is tax issues. – The European Commission is to come up with a proposal on this matter and we want to give it a strong mandate, apart from tax issues – says our source.
But on other issues related to strengthening the single market, Warsaw warns not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. This is the case, for example, with the liberalization of competition protection rules to facilitate mergers and acquisitions to create European champions. — We are in favor of such processes taking place organically. We are afraid that too radical actions would restrict competition and lead to higher prices for consumers, we hear.
According to Letta and Draghi's recommendations, the EU should enable companies operating in key sectors such as digital technologies, telecommunications, capital markets and energy to scale up and compete effectively on a global scale. This would be accompanied by ensuring the affordability and security of services for citizens and industry.
— Integration of the telecommunications market would mean reducing the number of telecoms through consolidation. This would mean that in Poland, Lithuania, etc., there would no longer be national telecoms. From the point of view of the country's economic security and consumer welfare, this raises doubts, explains our interlocutor.
As for Draghi's next proposal, the capital markets union, Poland, as our source says, “is showing more and more openness.” — There are various concepts on the table – for example, one European market for the most innovative companies, there is also the issue of harmonizing supervision or creating a single supervision over markets – describes our interlocutor.
Draghi also calls for a federal Europe, but – as our source says – “societies are not ready to give up sovereignty in foreign affairs or national currencies. The mood in many European countries is rather the opposite.”
When it comes to protecting the EU market, Poland is yes, but…
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The “Industrial Accelerator Act”, long awaited by the European, including Polish, industry, developed by Stéphane Séjourné, deputy head of the European Commission for prosperity and industrial strategy, is to contain recipes for the current crisis, among others, in energy-intensive industries. In this context, Séjourné promotes the slogan “Made in Europe”.
In his opinion, public money in the EU should support local production and jobs. This approach would also apply to public tenders and foreign investments.
According to our sources, Warsaw does not reject the idea of buying more European products and shortening supply chains. Especially in such strategic sectors as the production of medicines, cars or heavy industry. Moreover, the Polish government itself has been promoting the “re-Polonization” of public procurement for almost a year. However – as we hear – The EU is not an autarky – supply chains are complex, so there are concerns about over-regulation in this area.
— We are open to these proposals, but we do not want automation, we are in favor of conducting an analysis – sector by sector, because if we do not have technology in a given area – we cannot close ourselves off. So the devil is in the details. This solution must be pragmatic to strengthen the EU economy, not ideological, our source concludes.
Poland shares its position with other Visegrad Group countries regarding the ETS2 system
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Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock
In a tense geopolitical situation, Poland advocates an assertive approach
In the face of growing tensions in relations with China and the US, EU leaders are also expected to discuss what position the EU should take in a world of increased – and not always fair – economic competition and trade imbalance. As well as how to best respond to economic pressures and reduce economic dependencies, especially in areas such as raw materials and critical technologies.
In response to the current geopolitical situation, the European Commission is accelerating its ambitions in the area of trade policy – it has finalized the agreement with Mercosur, and further agreements are on the table, including with India and Australia. On the other hand, the Commission wants to protect strategic sectors and strengthen the EU's independence in key areas such as access to rare earth metals.
Poland, as we hear, supports an assertive approach to world hegemons. — When it comes to geoeconomics and our approach towards China and the US, we will present an assertive position — more towards China than towards the US. The situation with China is increasingly tense, our source emphasizes. He adds that Europe must take responsibility for itself and not fall from one dependence to another.
Another interlocutor argues: – The example of the electric car and battery markets shows that our openness has resulted in China's dominance in these areas. There is therefore a point in talking about protectionism, because there is a feeling that China is not playing fair.
No specific decisions should be expected after the summit of EU leaders
According to our interlocutors, we can also expect that the topic of the new EU budget for 2028-2034 will come up during the talks. In this matter, Poland is closer to the countries of our region and the South than to the so-called net payers who do not want an ambitious EU budget.
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The informal meeting of EU leaders will be a strategic brainstorming session, but no conclusions have been provided, so no decisions should be expected from it.
As one of our sources estimates, due to the fact that the organizers have not narrowed down the pool of topics, and in addition, the meetings with Draghi and Letta will be separate, and only then will the leaders' talks among themselves be planned, “in effect, everyone will talk about what interests them.”
— The leaders will put ideas on the table and there will be a very broad discussion, but no decisions will be made – describes.
For Poland, the most important are the demands regarding ETS 1 and 2. In energy matters, we share a common approach with the rest of the Visegrad Group, i.e. the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and also – as we hear – with Italy. On some issues, our energy demands are also shared by the Germans and the French.
As for ETS2, according to our sources “there is now no majority among EU countries for its delay.” — This is a longer game in which we explain to countries why this is wrong. However, the entry of ETS2 has been postponed so much that many leaders have not yet addressed this issue – explains our interlocutor.
