EU summit fails to reach consensus on conclusions

The European Council on Friday conceded that its member states have failed to reach consensus on summit conclusions for "reasons unrelated to its substance."

"The European Council deliberated on the attached document. It was supported by 27 Members of the European Council, but it did not gather consensus, for reasons unrelated to its substance," said the conclusions of the EU spring summit, released in the name of the European Council president, rather than the council as usual.

"References to the European Council in the attached document should not be read as implying a formal endorsement by the European Council acting as an institution," the conclusions added.

Recognizing difficult situations between the countries, German Chancellor Angela Merkel still assessed positively about the progress on security and defense policy made in the summit.

"We agreed that it's important that the European Union's defense policy should be complementary to NATO, to strengthen it," Merkel told reporters after the summit.

The leaders reportedly discussed how the EU should function in the future and how to maintain unity amid severe political and migration pressures during the two-day summit.

It's believed that Poland, disgruntled over Donald Tusk being re-elected the president of the European Council, refused to give its nod to the conclusions.

Tusk on Thursday won another term despite opposition from his home country Poland.

"The European Council today re-elected Donald Tusk as its president for a second term of two-and-a-half years, from June 1, 2017 to Nov. 30, 2019," the council on Thursday announced in a statement.

Tusk was also reappointed as president of the Euro Summit for the same period.

Poland had earlier proposed Polish member of the European Parliament (MEP) Jacek Saryusz-Wolski for Tusk's position.

After Tusk being re-elected, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo announced that she would block the summit's final conclusions.

"I won't accept the summit conclusions, so the summit won't be valid," Szydlo told a press conference on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Szydlo wrote a letter to MEPs, in which she underlined the lack of Poland's support for Tusk.

Source: Xinhua