In a calmer mood than on Thursday, the twenty-seven leaders of Europe’s countries (all bar the British) examined on Friday 10 March the structure and content of the Rome Declaration that they will be adopting on Friday 25 March at the celebrations marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.
Alongside the messages about the main success stories of the European projects, the challenges facing the European Union today and the tightened priorities that Europe will focus on in the future, the Rome Declaration, of which EUROPE has already discussed a draft version (see EUROPE 11741) – will pave the way for some member states having the option of cooperating more closely on aspects of their choice.
Enhanced cooperation on issues such as defence and security will always be the result of noting that it is not possible to act with all twenty-seven countries together and will take place within the framework of the existing treaties and respect the fundamental principles of the single market and/or the Schengen area of free movement.
Enhanced cooperation? Multi-speed Europe or avant-gardes? These ideas have been put forward since the informal Malta Summit by various European leaders who have had enough of Europe moving forward at the speed of the slowest nation (see EUROPE 11718). They raise fear among some countries of being relegated to into an inferior category. Poland for example, stresses the need for EU27 unity.
Multi-speed Europe will be a subject of debate, and I understand that there are different views, said the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, adding that given the talks in the future about Brexit, he insistently called for European political unity to be maintained among the EU27. Rejecting the idea that greater use of enhanced cooperation, such as on issues included in the current treaties, would divide Europe, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that a Europe of the avant-garde (the third scenario considered in the European Commission’ recent White Paper on the future of Europe (see EUROPE 11736) would enable those who wish to do more together to do so without being held back by the more reluctant countries, adding that they therefore didn’t want to change the current treaties, which would remain in place ‘for a long time.’
In the Commission president’s circles, people refuse to use the concept of a multi-speed Europe because it implies going in different directions when it comes to integration, whereas the EU27 should go in the same direction at different speeds. Within the European institution, they also stress the importance of making the most of all the potential available under the current treaties in order to generate speedy, tangible results while respecting the principle of subsidiarity.
Fo the Italian prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, whose country will be drawing up the Rome Declaration, a Europe of enhanced cooperation is ‘already a reality in Europe.’ He cited the euro, the Schengen Area and the European prosecutor’s office (see other article). He said that an à la carte Europe would not be established and above all, new divisions would not be created between small and large countries or, ‘worse,’ between countries in the East and West.
Hoping to issue a positive message in Rome, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that Europeans had to remember that the EU was a model of economic and political freedom on a scale never seen before in the world. She said a multi-speed Europe must remain ‘open’ to countries that want to join the avant-garde. The French president, Francois Hollande, said it wasn’t about having several speeds or excluding anyone, but for those who wish to be able, without changing the treaties, to converge on defence, security, UfM, the eurozone and tax and social harmonisation.
Poland gave a different interpretation. The Polish PM, Beata Szydlo, whose conservative attitude was mentioned by a number of participants after the incidents relating to Donald Tusk’s re-election as head of the European Council (see EUROPE 11742), warned that she would never agree to talk about a multi-speed Europe and in her opinion, any reference to differentiating time, rules and direction of evolution would de facto lead to a multi-speed Europe and would lead to the destruction of the EU.
A few controversial topics, social policy and enlargement
In line with the Bratislava Declaration of September 2016 (see EUROPE 11626), the Rome Declaration will mention a number of priority domains of action that will make Europe more prosperous, more sustainable, safer and capable of taking on board more international responsibilities. Germany and Luxembourg wanted the fight against climate change to be explicitly mentioned.
Two subjects remain controversial – social issues and reference to future EU enlargement, particularly the Western Balkans. Merkel said a number of countries had insisted on the social dimension, but that doesn’t come under the EU’s powers. References to a social Europe clearly reveal ideological divisions, like the fractures that separate member states on the question of the posting of workers or the indexing of family allowances received by citizens living in another member state for children living in their country of origin.
The future shape of the European Union will require reflection in the medium-term, for which the Rome Declaration will serve as the kick-off and which will be determined by the outcome of the elections later this year in countries like the Netherlands, France and Germany.
In this regard, the leaders of the Benelux nations will be meeting first with their counterparts in the Visegrad group and then with the Baltic States. The Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, appreciated the usefulness of holding discussions in small formats with countries that do not spontaneously share the same vision of the furore of Europe.
The working document used as background for the European leaders’ talks can be found at: http://bit.ly/2lE5q7w (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Emmanuel Hagry, Jan Kordys, Elodie Lamer, Aminata Niang and Sophie Petitjean)