Listen here the debate in the audio podcast

#7 | PC 1 LIVE DEBATE | The AFCO Report and the Process for Treaty Reform | RSS.com

Listen here the debate in the audio podcast
#6 | PC3 & PC5 JOINT LIVE DEBATE | Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Democracy | RSS.com

On 5 and 6 October, the European Political Community (EPC) and the European Council will meet in Granada, under the Spanish presidency of the EU Council of Ministers. This summit will address the question of the enlargement of the Union to include nine new Member States: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, plus Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine has turned Ukraine's accession into a moral and geopolitical obligation, thus relaunching a process of EU geographical expansion that has been practically paralysed since the signing of the Lisbon Treaty in 2007, with the exception of Croatia's accession in 2013.

“After the situation created by Putin's full-scale war in Ukraine, the deepening of the integration project is now unavoidable, as advocated by the European Parliament” states Domènec Ruiz Devesa, President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF). “In Granada, the EU Leaders need to clarify not so much the "what" (enlargement) as the "how" (how to implement it financially and institutionally) that needs to be worked out. The arithmetical sum of states would mean nine new vetoes in the Council, and as many Commissioners, to reach the number of 36, which is not acceptable”.

This is particularly true with regard to decision-making in the Council, and the consequent increase in the possibilities of blockage through the use (and abuse) of the veto in certain policies of a strategic nature (foreign policy, taxation, multiannual budget, own resources, electoral law, monitoring of the rule of law, reform of the Treaties, among others). In a Union of Thirty-Six, it is unacceptable that the European Parliament should continue to be unable to participate in the approval of the Union's revenue, including new European taxes and the issuing of public debt, nor should it have the capacity for legislative initiative.

“The progress towards the geographical enlargement needs to evolve hand in hand with the political deepening of the EU integration and the Union of European Federalists will keep advocating for that” concludes Domènec Ruiz Devesa.

Watch here the debate in the video

After many months of work that involved all the Committees of the European Parliament, the five rapporteurs of the draft report for the amendment of the Treaties (all board members of The Spinelli Group) presented today in the European Parliament’s Institutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) the results of their work and opened a debate in view of the plenary vote scheduled for 9 November.

"This is a great moment for European democracy," commented Domènec Ruiz Devesa, President of the UEF: "A Europe more able to face the challenges of tomorrow, more democratic and legitimate, more efficient—this is what we need at the moment, and this is what the report is about.”

The report proposes to amend more than 100 articles of the current Treaties and create a new institutional balance between the EU institutions, strengthening the EP and the Commission, and transforming the Council into a federal Senate; granting new competencies to the European Union based on the principle of subsidiarity, and increasing as well the role of the Regions. Furthermore, the proposal would strengthen the role of the European Court of Justice to oversee the respect for the rule of law in the member states.

As Guy Verhofstadt pointed out, the text proposes to overcome the unanimity blockade and to create decision-making mechanisms that would enable the EU to act effectively and more democratically.

The UEF, which campaigned long and hard to bring out, during the Conference on the Future of Europe, these fundamental proposals, supported the drafting of the report by contributing ideas, debates, opinion papers, and citizen engagement activities. We enthusiastically welcome the ideas put forward in the draft report and call for a quick start of the revision process through a Convention.

Sandro Gozi, chair of the Spinelli Group pointed out: "This is not the time to be cautious, because the EU needs this reform now. And since the Council and the governments have never had an appetite for Treaty reform, our task now is to make it happen”.

"We will strive for the Spanish Presidency to send the Parliament’s request on the opening of the Convention already to the last European Council in 2023 so that the Convention can be set already for the beginning of 2025,” added Domènec Ruiz Devesa. He concluded: “We federalists are at the forefront of this battle for the future of European citizens".

Context

The report presented today follows the resolution of 9 June 2022 where EU lawmakers demanded a strong institutional reform. A reform of the European founding texts is necessary to translate the recommendations of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) into law.
The CoFoE was a major democratic exercise of the EU, which gathered 400 European citizens to debate better European policies. All the European institutions pledged to take the recommendations of the CoFoE into account, but so far, only the European Parliament has taken definitive action in that regard.

Alexandre Météreau, Policy Officer of the UEF and EU influencer Quentin Deschandelliers, aka MEPassistant (@mepassistant) will comment on the SOTEU speech 2023 with interventions from Domenec Ruiz Devesa MEP, President of the UEF, and Sandro Gozi MEP, Chair of the Spinelli Group.

Just a few hours after the State of the European Union address by the President of the European Commission, a group of European parliamentarians led by Guy Verhofstadt, board member of the Spinelli Group, presented in a press conference a draft report calling for Treaty Change.

Although the text will need the approval of the European Parliament’s Institutional Affairs Committee (AFCO), the political consensus of the report makes it a great proposal to initiate a Convention that will draft the new European treaties.

During her SOTEU address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen endorsed the need for Treaty Change through a Convention. Yet, she failed to encourage the European Council to rise to the challenge. She also claimed that the enlargement of the Union to the Western Balkans and Ukraine should not wait for Treaty reform.

The Federalists disagree with this approach. We believe that enlargement calls for deep institutional reforms. The European Union cannot work with more than 30 members with the institutions it has today.

In a live stream organised by the UEF on Wednesday, Domènec Ruiz Devesa MEP, President of the UEF, said "There is a double message from Ursula von der Leyen. On one hand enlargement and deepening go hand in hand, and on the other she puts conditions on deepening—for us federalists, there can be no ‘if’.”

Context
Every year, the President of the European Commission gives the State of the European Union (SOTEU) address, where she underlines the upcoming priorities for the European executive. This year’s SOTEU, on Wednesday 13 September, was the last one before the European elections of 2024.
Later that day, a group of Members of the European Parliament led by Guy Verhofstadt presented a draft report calling for Treaty Change. This report will be put to a vote at the European Parliament’s Institutional Committee in September, then to the Plenary in November 2023.

Listen here the debate on video