(Strasbourg) “The EU is closing ranks in several areas. And this will be seen at the European Council” in Brussels on December 4^th and 15^th. This was stated by Frans Timmermans, deputy vice president of the European Commission, who is in Strasbourg to meet the MEPs in the run-up to the summit that will deal with defence, Brexit, migration and lots more. According to Timmermans, “we have woken up the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ of the Lisbon Treaty, that is, Pesco”, permanent structured cooperation on security and defence, that is on the agenda of the summit of the EU’s heads of state and government. Pesco involves 25 EU countries working together on investments and research for a common defence policy (including cyber-defence) and the option to take part in joint military peacekeeping operations. But Timmermans does not forget economy (“we must take a recovering Europe by the hand to support businesses and create new jobs”; not least through the 500 billion investment plan set up by the EU Commission) and migration. As to this, he gets all worked up: “the only solution we can find is on a Europeans scale” and includes “solidarity among the states”. He hopes the Dublin regulation may be reformed so Schengen can be started all over again. He thus disclaims the position recently taken by the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who asked to take a step back in the rehoming of migrants arrived in Italy and Greece. Last but not least, according to Timmermans, Europe “must take action about the state of detention” of migrants from inland Africa “in Libya”.