On Wednesday 22 February, the European Commissioners held an initial discussion on the White Paper on the future of the European Union, to be presented by the European Commission ahead of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the signature of the Treaty of Rome (see EUROPE 11718, 11716).
This discussion, which took up by far the most time of all of the debates on the agenda items, allowed all the Commissioners to express their views, one participant explained. The Commissioners were asked to answer the following questions: - what are the three most significant events of 60 years of European integration?; - What are the three current challenges and the three solutions to deal with them?
According to the same source, all the subjects were discussed on the basis of the sensitivities and/or provenance of those who spoke – including a reflection on a Europe of several speeds without the United Kingdom. The Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said that the logic of the EU post-Brexit is to shore up the Union without any clash between the Twenty-Seven and the Eurozone. However, “the price to be paid to reinforce the Union of the Twenty-Seven must not be giving up on integrating the Eurozone”, he said, expressing his hopes that the White Paper, which is expected for the first half of March, will be ambitious when it comes to Economic and Monetary Union.
Last week, the European Parliament sketched out its vision of the future of Europe, with and without treaty change, and of the creation of a budgetary capacity for the Eurozone (see EUROPE 11727). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Élodie Lamer)