Europe’s Leaders Curtail Summer Holidays in Light of Crises
A spokeswoman for Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said at the end of July
that Mr. Juncker had asked that officials involved in Brexit be "ready every day, throughout the coming weeks, throughout the month of August, to engage with our British counterparts." The president of the European Parliament nevertheless notified Mr. Juncker in a letter that the legislature would be gone fishing for much of the month.
An author of a recent study that showed Europeans work 14 percent fewer hours on average than Americans, in part because of vacation days, Professor Fuchs-Schündeln added, "It’s seen as completely natural and healthy
that politicians go on vacation." Ms. Merkel’s Italian excursion may also be an astute political move.
David Davis, Ms. May’s secretary of state for Exiting the European Union, cited Parliament’s summer recess
as explanation for his declining to answer questions before the Committee on Exiting the European Union.
Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy, facing a daunting migration crisis
that intensifies with the summer heat, has kept his government cooped up in August cabinet meetings and has held talks this week with Libyan envoys.
Mr. Juncker himself headed off to vacation in Austria, where, he told Politico, his reading list includes a crime thriller "that talks about Trump, Clinton, Bush,"
and "1913: The Year Before the Storm," by Florian Illies, about the last year of peace before World War I.
Officials in Mr. Gentiloni’s office said this week
that he has several public appearances coming up, including one on Monday, the day before the national Ferragosto holiday, which almost everyone in Italy observes as the linchpin of a long, long weekend.
