EU, von der Leyen and Macron ask for the treaties to be revised: “Unanimity no longer makes sense”. But 13 countries are already taking sides against

Review the treaties ofEuropean Unionincluding the voting systemunanimity. This is the line taken by the President of the Commission Ursula von Der Leyen and by the French president Emmanuel Macron during the celebration of Europe Day. Today 9 maggio have been presented the 49 maxi-proposals developed during the experiment of direct democracy which involved all the EU states. A request emerged from the shareholders’ meetings for “modify the treaties”, Now strongly supported by both from Der Leyen that from Macron himself, in the aftermath of veto dell’Hungary that has again blocked the green light for the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. The idea of ​​a revision of the treaties and of the overcoming unanimity was also supported by the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghibut a group of 13 EU countries has already signed up for a non-paper (informal document) and took sides against: “It would be reckless and premature.”

At the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe, Macron said he intends to start a discussion as early as the next June European Council. “The challenge you are setting us is to be effectivemeans Act quicklyin a compact way, leaving no one behind and in the face of this it will be necessary review the rules. And I would like to say that one of the ways of reform is the convening of one convection for the revision of the treaties. It is a proposal from the European Parliament which I approve, I am in favor“, Said Macron, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council. The French president, as before him too from the Leyen, pushed on the importance of changing the decision-making mechanisms. “The avant-gardes, different opinions have always been the driving force behind Europe’s growth, but in recent years I think that the need to decide at 27 have slowed down this commitment ”, said the French president. “The heads of state and government they never come together as a eurozone, and that is wrong. L’Multi-speed Europe it already exists. We must not exclude anyone but we must also not let a few block everything “.

Von der Leyen shortly before he had supported the proposal also received by the participants of the Conference themselves: “I will always be on the side of those who want to reform the EU to make it work better“, He declared, indicating that he wanted to work in this direction“ without taboos and without any ideological red line ”. “I have always maintained that the vote unanimously in some key areas “of European politics” simply it no longer makes sense if we want to be able to move faster ”. L’unanimity provides for agreement by all EU member states and is one of the voting rules in force in the European Council. The Council must vote unanimously when making decisions concerning a number of strategic sectors, provided for by the treaties. These include, for example, the taxation, social security, common foreign and security policy, the accession of new Member States. Already the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 has increased the number of sectors in which voting is expected a qualified majority.

On May 3, in his speech to a half-empty Strasbourg classroom, Italian Prime Minister Draghi had already opened the review of the treaties to deal with an emergency situation such as the war in Ukraine. “The European institutions have served European citizens well, but they are inadequate for the reality that manifests itself in front of us today ”, said the Prime Minister. “We need pragmatic federalism “. And if “this requires the beginning of a path that will lead to the revision of the Treaties, it should be embraced with courage and trust”, added Draghi. But the request of the Italian premier was above all that of “going beyond the principle unanimityfrom which originates an intergovernmental logic made up of crossed vetoesand move towards decisions taken by qualified majority “.

“Of course there are different opinions between Member States, and that is why I said that if we want to move forward towards the Convention we have to set the framework for the process, I have to set this framework in place. On this we will have one discussion in June ”, Macron emphasized during the closing ceremony of the Conference on the future of Europe. In fact, a group of thirteen European countries – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Slovenia – opposes the modification of the European treaties. Starting a process to change the treaties would risk “to remove political energy the important task of finding solutions to citizens’ questions “and” to the challenges urgent geopolitics that Europe must face ”, write the capitals in the non-paper.

In the joint document, the 13 countries define the Conference on the future of Europe as “an unprecedented democratic exercise” but recall that “the modification of the Treaties has never been a scope of the Conference “and” what matters is addressing the ideas and concerns of citizens “. “The ideas presented should deserve a serious follow-up” and “they shouldn’t be exploited to serve special institutional interests “, write the capitals, specifying that” each European institution “will follow” its own rules procedural“And” the agreed rules of the Conference “. “We also remember that every decision will be taken in the context of the division of competences” of the various EU institutions “established by the treaty and in full compliance with key principles such as subsidiarity e proportionality“, We still read in the non-paper. “While we don’t rule out any options at this stage, we don’t support attempts reckless e prematurely to start a process of modification of the treaties “, highlight the countries, according to which” the management of crisis by the EU in recent years – including Covid and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine – has shown clearly what the EU can accomplish within the current framework of the treaties. The EU acted quickly and implemented common solutions ed effective. We already have a Europe that works. We don’t need to rush in institutional reforms to get results ”, concludes the document.

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