When the plenary session votes on Thursday 16 February on three draft resolutions on a reformed European Union with no treaty change or requirement of treaty change (see EUROPE 11686) and on creating a budgetary capacity for the euro area (see other article), the pro-European forces in the European Parliament, comprising the EPP, S&D and ALDE political groups which formed the now defunct “grand coalition” are likely to win the day with their vision for the future of the EU at a time when the United Kingdom has decided to leave the Union.
During the debate in Strasbourg on Tuesday 14 February, Guy Verhofstadt argued that the European Union needed root and branch reform. He said that European citizens did not want less Europe but are disappointed because the EU, as it operates at the moment, delivers too little too late. To the three fundamental criticisms put by the Eurosceptics and Europhobes, he replied: Is our vision too institutional? Without a European Border and Coast Guard, there can be no firm management of migratory flows; - Do citizens want less Europe? We argue for a smaller Commission, fewer rules, policies that are more social; - Are we too visionary? Without a long-term blueprint, it would not be possible to persuade the citizens of the European Union.
The report drafted by Mercedes Bresso (S&D, Italy) and Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany) identifies the areas where European integration without amending the treaties would bring real added value, areas such as energy, defence, migration, and social policy. Brok regretted that the member states are unwilling to take more decisions by qualified majority. “I’m for a multi-speed Europe, but within the framework of the (current) treaties”, for example, by means of “enhanced cooperation”.
Ahead of the plenary session vote, Bresso and Brok put down some 20 amendments. Among these, they look to remove the provisions calling for the creation of a framework for an orderly sovereign default procedure and for further work to be undertaken on sovereign debt and protecting the euro against economic shocks and speculative behaviour in sovereign bond markets
In response to Verhofstadt’s call for reflection on institutional evolution culminating in a Convention, European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans noted that “treaty change is not high among the priorities of the member states”. Commissioner for the euro Valdis Dombrovskis said that, with regard to integration, responsibility and solidarity went hand in hand.
Deepening EMU. Ahead of the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the Commission will, in March, present a White Paper on the future of the EU (see EUROPE 11716).
“At a time when some want to re-awaken Grexit”, tell President Juncker that “the eurozone must be at the heart of the White Paper”, said Pervenche Berès (S&D, France), joint author of a report on the creation of a budgetary capacity for the euro area. She dismissed the argument that deepening economic and monetary union (EMU) should not be part of the reflection “on the grounds that it could be a divisive issue for the 27-member EU”. She stated that the time for treading water while waiting for the UK has gone and she argued for the eurozone to be consolidated so that it becomes the “the cornerstone of the EU-27”. She argued that a budgetary capacity for the euro area with the adjustment mechanisms that that would entail is effectively no more than what the member states were promised at the start of the EMU.
Unsurprisingly, the noises from the Eurosceptics and the Europhobes were very different. “The people want more Europe? That’s not true, they want less Europe”, retorted Nigel Farage (UK), leader of the EFDD Group. He accused the pro-European groups of showing disdain for the electorate, highlighting that a survey conducted by Chatham House, the UK Royal Institute of International Affairs, before President Trump’s anti-immigration executive order found that 55% of people questioned in ten European countries backed a halt to immigration from mainly Muslim countries. “The EU in its present form has no future”, Farage said. Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France) pointed out to him, however, that in the UK referendum, most young Britons said that there was no future outside the EU.
Speaking for the ECR Group, Ashley Fox criticised a report that seeks to centralise powers in Europe when, in his view, there has already been too much European integration. Gerolf Annemans (ENF, Belgium) said that Europe was an “artificial construction” struggling to keep itself alive. Marco Zanni (ENF, Italy) said: “If we continue like this, with a euro that is losing value, then the Eurosceptics will win the battle. That's clear!” (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)