The Union of European Federalists welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament of three important reports calling for more integration in the European Union. Every single day is essential to re-gain people’s trust in Europe, re-build vision and re-launch Europe’s unity. Today, the European Parliament moves in that direction and shows the right way to the national governments.
The report on “Improving the functioning of the EU building on the potential of the Lisbon Treaty”, prepared by MEPs Elmar Brok and Mercedes Bresso, shows that the Lisbon Treaty offers instruments that can be used with no delay to deepen the Economic and Monetary Union, increase the effectiveness of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and make the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice more fit for today’s challenges. The adopted text indicates also ways to improve the effectiveness of Council’s decision making, by extending the use of qualified majority voting, and to guarantee its transparency by holding its meetings in public.
The report on “possible evolutions and adjustments of the current institutional set up of the EU”, prepared by MEP Guy Verhofstadt, outlines proposals for deep reforms of the EU’s institutional architecture, going also beyond the Treaty of Lisbon. It calls for a real European Government, a genuine EU budget and for the creation of a European defense union.
The report on “Budgetary Capacity for the Euro area”, prepared by MEPs Pervenche Berès and Reimer Böge, makes a strong call for the creation of a budget of the Eurozone, aiming at providing finally the monetary union with economic policy tools. The European Parliament is now taking a strong stance in support of the full completion and parliamentarisation of the Economic and Monetary Union.
“Today the Parliament shows that it has a clear vision on how to move towards more and better Europe that delivers what European citizens expect: from economic stability and growth, to internal and external security threats as well as better and more transparent decision making”.
Elmar BROK, President of the Union of European Federalists
The 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 2017 is the right occasion to start a process, involving also national parliaments and civil society; on that day, the Union of European Federalists is co-organising, together with other pro-European organisations, an open “March for Europe”, expected to be attended by thousands of European citizens coming from across the continent calling for a relaunch of European political unity. Against walls, divisions and nationalism.
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EDITOR’S NOTE:
The Union of European Federalists (UEF), is a supranational political movement dedicated to uniting Europe along federal lines. The UEF consists of 25 national member organisations across Europe that are autonomous centres of the UEF activities, reaching out to EU citizens and spreading the federalists' message to them by organizing various activities in their countries.
European Federalists welcome approval of Bresso/Brok and Verhofstadt reports by the European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
The Union of European Federalists welcomes the approval by the European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs of two important reports that together show the way to reform and relaunch the European Union towards closer integration, within the boundaries of the current treaties and beyond: the own-initiative report on “improving the functioning of the EU building on the potential of the Lisbon Treaty”, drafted by Mercedes BRESSO (S&D, Italy) and Elmar BROK (EPP, Germany) and the report on the “possible evolutions and adjustments of the current institutional set up of the EU”, drafted by Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, Belgium).
The report drafted by Mr Brok and Mrs. Bresso, who are current and former President of the Union of European Federalists, show that the Lisbon Treaty already offers instruments that can be used with no delay to deepen the Economic and Monetary Union, increase the effectiveness of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and make the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice more fit for today’s challenges.
The report drafted by Mr. Verhofstadt calls for a reform of the EU treaties towards a simpler and more effective European Union, without multiple opt-outs and derogations, with a deeply integrated Eurozone at its core. The report indicates that the Eurozone should have a fiscal capacity, a system of genuine own resources, a European treasury, and a federal and non-intergovernmental decision-making where the European Commission becomes a genuine European Government.
Mr Brok stated: “Today the Parliament shows that it has a clear vision on how to move Europe forward. In the short-term there is much that can be done, already within the current treaties, to make the Eurozone more robust, give better responses to internal and external security threats, and improve the way the EU takes its decision. At the same time, we should start a discussion, involving all European and national stakeholders, on what type of Union we want for the future, a Union that can combine successfully the need of many countries and citizens for closer political and economic integration, with the will of others who are satisfied with a lesser degree of integration. Our reports show how this can be done."
Mrs Bresso added: “Europe needs a political relaunch. These reports together show the way. They are the proposals of the European Parliament for the European Council in Rome in March 2017. The summit in March on the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome is the right occasion to formally start a process, involving also national parliaments and civil society, to discuss such proposals and how to implement them. Offering the citizens a clear and comprehensive project for a Europe that is united and can deliver on important policies, is the real alternative to nationalists and populists. This is why I believe in the prospect of the United States of Europe, not as a dream but as a project to inspire our citizens."
The Union of European Federalists encourages the European Parliament to adopt the two reports in plenary as soon as possible and then engage national parliaments, national governments and civil society in follow-up activities in order to ensure that the proposals set out in the two reports are pursued as soon as possible. The 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in March 2017 is the appropriate moment to start such a process.
The Schengen system, together with the euro and the single market, are the most advanced and visible achievements of European integration. They are key elements of a political project of unification that has guaranteed unprecedented peace and prosperity to the citizens of Europe.
The issues of migration and security are bound to remain long-term challenges. If national governments choose to respond by re-establishing national borders checks and building fences in a selfish and doomed attempt to keep problems in their neighbors' backyard, they will solve neither the issue of migration nor improve the security situation.
Such moves would only divert resources away from more effective European measures. Most of all, they will inflict a lethal blow to people’s belief in Europe as a project of integration, freedom and solidarity. If the European project regresses, the European economy will suffer, European influence in the world will be further diminished and democracy will come under pressure in many countries. The threat of Europe turning back to a dreadful past of divisions and fratricidal wars will haunt us once more.
To cope with the refugee and security emergencies, a European strategy and European solutions, at supranational level, and with full respect of European values and achievements are required. At this moment, this means that:
- the European Parliament and the Council should rapidly adopt the European Commission’s proposals for reinforcing the Schengen system and establishing a European Border and Coastal Guard, as an intermediate step to an entirely European system to manage the common borders of the European Union;
- the European Council should ask the European Commission to develop a blueprint and a roadmap for strengthening European police and intelligence cooperation and move towards the development of effective European police and intelligence forces to address cross-border crimes and security threats;
- the European Commission should urgently make proposals for implementing sustainable European migration and asylum policies, including a balanced and equitable single European asylum system, with a European asylum authority, mechanisms for sharing the number and costs of arrivals among Member States, and legal routes for economic migrants.
As such steps impact on national sovereignty, their completion is only conceivable within a plan to relaunch European political union, according to a clear and definite time frame.
Confronted with the challenges of the future of the Euro and the future of Schengen, the European Council should oppose any proposals to suspend or dilute any European achievements and address how to relaunch European political unity as soon as possible.
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EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Union of European Federalists (UEF), is a supranational political movement founded in 1946 dedicated to uniting Europe along federal lines.
The UEF has recently published a policy digest: European Asylum and Immigration Policies and a European Border Service outlining the organisation’s proposals on these matters.
On 23 February 2016, a Federalist Workshop will be held in Brussels on the topic Saving Schengen: Building a European Border Management System.
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The Spinelli Group meeting in Strasbourg on 9th of September welcomes the Five Presidents' Report on “Completing Europe Economic and Monetary Union” submitted to the European Council in June 2015.
We share the view that the monetary union is not sustainable in its current form and that progress towards economic, financial, fiscal and political union is required to address the economic and institutional weaknesses that could eventually lead to its disintegration.
The Report rightly puts the completion of the banking union (including a common backstop to the single resolution fund and an adequate system of deposit insurance) and a capital market union as short-term priorities. We urge the European Commission to present legislative proposals in this respect as soon as possible and we invite the groups in the European Parliament to cooperate to ensure a fast finalisation.
The timing and process for reaching the long-term objectives set in the Report do not match the urgency of the challenges facing the Economic and Monetary Union. In many Member States, citizens are frustrated by the lack of jobs and economic stagnation. A much faster pace in integration is needed. There is no reason why the proposed White Paper to detail a path towards a fiscal, economic and political union cannot be put in motion immediately rather than in two years’ time. Its preparation should involve the political groups in the European Parliament and not be left again in the hands of another expert committee. There is no reason to postpone the completion of the monetary union to 2025.
Greater clarity is required on the key elements of the economic, fiscal and political union envisaged by the Report. A fiscal and economic union cannot remain only a set of rules for national economies but should move towards a system of further sovereignty sharing within common and strong institutions. Key political decisions on national fiscal policies should become a common concern and be made jointly. The Report rightly insists on bridging the divergences between the various economies of the Member States, based on current rules and recommendations on structural reforms. However, the Eurozone should have a role to support such an effort and should have tools and resources for an active European economic policy for the interest of the euro area as a whole. In this respect, a Eurozone budget, with own resources sufficient to have an impact on the Eurozone economy, should be a priority for example.
The democratic legitimacy of the Eurozone decisions needs to increase in parallel to any advance in further integration. As the recent negotiations with Greece well illustrated, the current governance of the euro pits national democracies against each other. Instead what is needed is a strong European legitimacy for Eurozone decisions. A more independent role for the European Commission, as government of the Eurozone, and greater involvement of the European Parliament would enable decisions to be taken at the appropriate level and improve both efficiency and accountability.
To implement the envisaged longer term goals, treaty change or the conclusion of an additional Treaty for the Eurozone will be required. Member States should take this debate as an opportunity and not as a concern. The European Parliament should stand ready to make its proposals to prepare such debate and defend the case in front of the European citizens.
The stakes are too high not to act immediately.
The results of the referendum in Greece last Sunday and the expiry of the financial assistance package to the country are raising serious doubts on whether Greece will be able to remain part of the Eurozone. These doubts must be dispelled as soon as possible, before Europe heads to a lose-lose end game.
An exit of Greece from the Eurozone would waste years of sacrifices by the Greek people, sweep away the value of their savings and properties, cut the country off financial and trade markets. It would lead to a long-lasting future of economic misery for the Greek people. At the same time, if the Eurozone loses one of its members, financial markets would question whether the Euro really is irreversible, partners and rivals across the world would doubt whether the Europeans are actually able to stand together in stormy times, and many citizens across Europe would lose faith in the European Union as a project of unity and solidarity.
Elmar Brok, MEP, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament and President of the Union of European Federalists, stated today:
The Greek government should recognise the longstanding solidarity of the other 18 Euro-countries. It should also accept that membership of a monetary union implies limits to national sovereignty and demands responsibility and respect of agreed rules. Any new financial assistance package to Greece – which is guaranteed or financed by other Member States – must inevitably be conditional upon Greece undertaking structural reforms that make its public finances sustainable and its economy competitive for the long-run. While the last round of discussions focused mainly on cuts in public spending, greater attention should be paid to the fight against corruption, privileges and tax evasion, the reform of the public administration and the judicial system, and the creation of a regulatory and business environment that facilitates domestic and foreign investments.
On the other hand, if Greece progresses seriously in implementing agreed structural reforms, it should be rewarded with greater support for investments that boost growth (including through European-led projects) and serious consideration should be given to the sustainability of the Greek debt.
Mr. Brok added:
Today there is more at stake than the future of Greece. The crisis in Greece is an alarm bell on the need to accelerate the strengthening of the economic and monetary union and its governance. Economic imbalances are inevitable in any country, be it a centralised or a federal state, and any currency union. Mature currency unions have all the powers, tools and financial resources to limit such economic imbalances and eventually manage the insolvency of a region or a Member State when it occurs. The Eurozone does not have yet all necessary powers, tools and resources and finds itself exposed to the fragility of its weakest economies. Member States should fast track the reform of the Eurozone into a fully-fledged economic and political union.
The report “Completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union” recently presented by the Presidents of the European Commission, European Central Bank, European Council, Eurogroup and European Parliament identifies the right challenges, but the most ambitious reforms are left vague or delayed to a very distant future that may never come. The crisis with Greece should lead the EU and Eurozone institutions and Member States to accelerate the implementation of the recommendations in the report. Priorities are the completion of the Banking Union, the implementation of a Capital Markets Union, the creation of a Eurozone budget with sufficient resources to play a role in smoothing economic imbalances and investing in projects of European interest, greater powers for the Eurozone institutions to enforce their recommendations and reward compliance with adequate incentives. The European Commission should start proposing legislation as soon as possible to implement those recommendations that don’t require changes to the EU treaties. At the same time Member States should see reform of the treaties as an opportunity and not as a threat.
Democracy must be at the core of any strengthening of the Eurozone. The Greece debate is placing national public opinions one against the other, national democracies one against the other. More and more citizens in both creditor and debtor countries fear that national democracy and European integration are in contradiction. More European democracy is required in the process and in the outcome of any reform of the Eurozone governance. The negotiation of a new deal with Greece would be much easier if it were led by the European Commission, looking at the interest of the Eurozone and the European Union as a whole, backed by public debate in the European Parliament, rather than by a Eurogroup consisting of national finance ministers rightly preoccupied with their national constituencies. Likewise any reform of the Eurozone would increase its legitimacy and effectiveness if it moved the governance of the Eurozone away from intergovernmental negotiations towards a system of democratic government with the European Commission and the European Parliament at its core.
Other language versions:
The first policy brief addresses the possibilities of and limits to substantially improving the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) within the framework of the current Treaties and puts forward 25 specific proposals in this respect.
This policy brief constitutes the first part of the contribution to the debate on the report on “Improving the functioning of the European Union building on the potential of the Lisbon Treaty” being prepared by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament with co-rapporteurs Elmar Brok and Mercedes Bresso.
The brief analyses the possibilities that the Treaty of Lisbon offers in order to deepen and strengthen the Economic and Monetary Union and improve its democratic legitimacy and effectiveness. The democratic legitimacy of the EMU could be strengthened by a significant involvement of the European Parliament in the economic policy-making process, by a better division between the executive and legislative powers, and by the creation of an EMU Committee or Super-Committee within the European Parliament. The basis of a future economic and fiscal government of the euro area could be created by concentrating key prerogatives and capabilities on these matters and by merging the positions of President of the Eurogroup and Vice-President of the Commission into a de facto “EMU Finance Minister” responsible for the development and implementation of EMU economic and fiscal policy and democratically controlled and sanctioned by the European Parliament. An own budget for the Eurozone would allow the implementation of macroeconomic convergence and investment policies aimed at improving growth in the Euro area and to increase its resilience.
If the measures proposed here were implemented (and particularly if they were implemented as a package, or within a single roadmap), they could constitute a considerable improvement in the functioning of the EMU. While potentialities exist à traité constant, rallying the necessary political consensus among Member States (especially for the many measures that can only be implemented by unanimity of the Member States) represents a major challenge.
On the other hand, the limitations provided by the Treaties are also very clear. The potential degree of financial autonomy of the Union or the EMU is restricted by their lack of powers for tax collection or for issuance of sovereign debt and their limited spending powers. The inexistence of European political accountability when it comes to policies decided through the intergovernmental method is the major obstacle to democracy, effectiveness and enforceability. Sooner rather than later the Treaties would need to be revised to reach a definitive settlement in these areas and secure a sustainable future for the EMU.
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The Federal Committee of the Union of European Federalists, chaired by Mr Elmar Brok (MEP, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament) met in Brussels on 17-18 April 2015.
Regarding the future of the European Monetary Union and the prospect of an economic and fiscal union, the UEF welcomes the initiative of the Presidents of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the European Council and the Eurogroup to prepare a report for the European Council meeting in June. The UEF calls for the report to include clear proposals and a timetable towards an economic and fiscal union to strengthen and deepen the monetary union, including a Eurozone budget and debt and tax instruments to fund investments and stabilise the Eurozone economy. In the next months, the UEF will be collecting endorsements by members of the European Parliament and national parliaments on these requests.
On the prospect of an EU army, the UEF calls on the High Representative and EU Institutions to exploit the possibilities for a more integrated defence cooperation within the existing treaties. It urges Member States to establish a Permanent Structured Cooperation as the first nucleus of a European Defence Union. On the long term, the UEF stresses that a credible and efficient defence policy, acting as European pillar of NATO, can be achieved only by transferring national defence sovereignty to a federal EU, including the pooling of at least part of national defence budgets into a common European ad hoc budget and establishing a European Command accountable to a European authority subject to parliamentary control.
On the topic of EU immigration policy, particularly in light of recent tragedies in the Mediterranean, the UEF urges the European Commission to present a reform of the Common European Asylum System which can: ensure that people fleeing armed conflict or persecution and who are in need of international protection have effective access to legal asylum procedures (including in their country of origin). Furthermore, the UEF calls for the establishment of solidarity mechanisms between Member States, including resettlement programmes, allocating migrants to Member States according to their GDP or population, and ensuring that sufficient EU solidarity funds and operational capabilities are made available for that purpose.
On the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the UEF considers it to be an opportunity for a renewed transatlantic relationship and that it would serve as the basis for economic and political development in the whole transatlantic region. Nevertheless, certain conditions should be met in order to ensure that both sides will benefit equally from the TTIP through the harmonization and improvement of common standards. The UEF also insists that the European Parliament must be closely involved at all stages of the negotiations.