News of Europe | 6/2023, Momentum at the EP

Dear Federalists friends,
Welcome to the sixth edition of "News of Europe", the UEF's news brief. This week's main issue: Momentum for Treaty change at the European Parliament.
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As usual, the opinions reflected in this brief are its author's (and the people quoted) only and do not reflect the position of the UEF. And now, your brief.

Two important pieces of news from the European Parliament last week. The rapporteurs of the resolution for the amendment of the Treaties, which include many Spinelli Group members, agreed on a common position to trigger the famous article 48. All the pro-European parties (EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, the Greens, and The Left) are now ready to call for Treaty revision to reinforce the powers of the European Parliament and simplify voting rules at the Council.

Additionally, the European Parliament's voted on a report by Spinelli Group members Alin Mituta and Niklas Nienaß calling for more democracy at the European level. The text asks to strengthen the role of the Parliament, to give an “EU Statute of Citizenship,” and called for a European Agora and pan-European online citizens’ consultations.

These two decisions show that there is clear momentum for Treaty change. Our idea of a federal, sovereign and democratic Europe is still very much alive in today's European debates.

We learned last week that Türkiye's change of thought in accepting Sweden into the NATO Alliance was also motivated by the promise to see progress in its own candidacy for the EU. As a reminder, membership talks between Brussels and Istambul were halted in 2018 over domestic coup attempts, rule of law deterioration and degraded relations with the bloc.

The European Union and the leaders of the CELAC countries (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) met in Brussels on 17 and 18 July, for one of the most important multilateral summits of the year. Both parties committed to "renewing and further strengthening [their] long-standing bi-regional partnership," according to the communiqué of the Summit. "Despite the promises of investment and the signature of several deals", Euronews reported, the condemnation of the Russian aggression on Ukraine did not make it to the conclusions, as Nicaragua refused to denounce the Kremlin-led invasion. The Summit was also the occasion for strengthening commercial ties, damaged since Europe, back in 2019, refused to sign the Mercosur trade deal over concerns for the climate.

Finally, we learned last week that a group of EU countries called for creating a "strategic autonomy" Commissioner. Brussels-based newspaper POLITICO Europe reported that a document presented by Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia writes: “The responsibility of spearheading the Union’s open strategic autonomy should be explicitly included in the portfolio of an executive vice-president.” whose task should be to "mitigating our dependencies for critical raw materials." 

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Federalist regards,

Alexandre Météreau
on behalf of the UEF Secretariat