Brussels, 29/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 29 June, the heads of state and government in the European Union, apart from the outgoing British Prime Minister, David Cameron, began a “political reflection” based on the European level reforms to be carried out.
In a statement they adopted, the European leaders did not set out any limits in terms of substance or duration for this reflection, which seeks to provide a response to the “discontent” of citizens regarding the current political and social situation at “both European and national levels” and which has been expressed in the recent British referendum (see other article).
This reflection will continue during the next informal EU27 meeting in Bratislava as part of the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU on Friday 16 September.
Matteo Renzi from Italy said that once the “shock” is over regarding the absence of a country that is usually part of the work, the reflection seeks to develop a “quality leap forward”. Charles Michel from Belgium explained that they had two options to examine: either they remain dumbfounded with their arms dangling in front of them or they pull up their shirtsleeves and get to work and he refused to be fatalistic about the situation. François Hollande from France said that Europe had the ability to show solidarity and through solidarity and its capacity to take initiatives Europe would be able to “fully recover confidence in itself and avoid division”. He said that “those that love Europe more of those who are not in it” and that is when one is no longer benefiting from something that one begins to notice what one has done.
Although the EU27 say that they are determined to “remain united and work in the EU to confront the challenges of the 21st century”, Beata Szydlo said that the reflection would be a lengthy and difficult one and should focus on projects that promote togetherness rather than division. Poland is a member of the Visegrad group of countries and has said the preliminary messages sent out by the six founding EU countries last weekend in Berlin were provocative and created divisions (see EUROPE 11581). She also said that the idea of an EU going at different speeds would quite mean the end of the Union.
It was not the right time on Wednesday to draw up a detailed inventory of the reforms needed to democratise Europe, ensure that it is better protected or stimulate more economic competitiveness. Neither was it the right time to provide a sketch of a new institutional architecture that would determine the level of the EU 27's ambition, with crucial elections in a year's time in Germany and France. Nonetheless, there were several tendencies that appeared to emerge in favour of reforms that could achieve concrete results on the basis of economic priorities that have already been set out such as employment, growth, investment and the climate.
Several areas of concrete action were mentioned. Hollande would like the priorities to be discussed in Bratislava next September to include “the security chapter, border protection and defence”. France is also proposing that all young Europeans have the opportunity to receive education in other EU countries. Renzi also mentioned the idea of ad hoc citizenship to enable young British people to continue their participation in Community exchange programmes in the education and training sectors.
Obviously, the EU has to reform but this should be done along the lines of what has already been mapped out, explained the Presidents of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who is convinced of the need to speed up the reforms already identified, without creating any new ones.
Berlin and Warsaw on opposite ends of the spectrum regarding treaty change. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, explained “This is not about changing the treaties or having more or less legislation but rather, to be more effective in reaching the objective of creating more wealth and prosperity. No one has said that we need a Convention for a broad debate on the treaties”. Christian Kern from Austria exclaimed that “this is not the right moment for major reforms or major change to the European project”. According to the latter, the problem is mainly about communication regarding the Union's approach to citizens because it is the most vulnerable sections of society and the United Kingdom that voted against the European project.
Szydlo, however, believes that they cannot simply restrict discussions to institutional reform. She also said that although discussing changes to the treaties would create resistance due to fears of provoking further instability, they had to do this nevertheless. The Polish Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Konrad Szymanski, asserted that the changes would not, however, affect the four fundamental internal market freedoms. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Lionel Changeur, Camille-Cerise Gessant, Pascal Hansens, Elodie Lamer, Aminata Niang, Solenn Paulic, Emmanuel Hagry)