Strongly taking the view that the current context is most conducive to the debate on the future of the European Union, several political forces at the European Parliament on Tuesday 12 September expressed their expectations, on the eve of the annual State of the Union speech by the President of the European Commission, Juncker.
“We need to take stock, show that we are capable of getting results on economic and migration matters”, said the leader of the EPP group, Germany's Manfred Weber. He said that the current circumstances are an “opportunity to be grasped with both hands” to make breakthroughs on European integration. In the view of his counterpart for the S&D group, Italy's Gianni Pittella, the European political scene before us has improved considerably. “Post Brexit, a new wind is blowing over the EU and the European citizen is starting to understand today that the EU is much more positive than disunity”, he added, warning against complacency. The leader of the ALDE group, Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt, said that the citizens' expectations of EU reform, that have been voiced in recent elections in the member states, are the major difference compared to last year. He said that having mainly carried out damage limitation, the Juncker Commission must now identify the “reforms that are necessary for the next two years”.
The co-chair of the Greens/EFA group, Philippe Lamberts of Belgium, mocked this very narrative of pretending that “all is well”: there has been no populist landslide, Eurobarometer shows confidence on the up, economic growth is back, etc. Certainly, Macron was elected in France (and will address the hemicycle in Strasbourg in October: Ed), but that was “frankly not a great victory”, he said. Speaking along the same lines, Patrick Le Hyaric (GUE/NGL, France) was critical of the higher echelons who believe that Europe has got away with it because a rise of populiism in the wake of Brexit has been avoided, but “underestimate the nature of the European crisis”. He criticised European initiatives such as the free-trade deal with Canada, which will “lead the citizens into social and climate injustice”. He said that “growth is recovering, but growth for whom?”.
Several political groups referred to a number of dossiers on which the European Commission should focus in order to obtain decisive results in the 18 working months left until the end of the legislative period.
Taking stock of the first six months of his term in office, Parliament's President Antonio Tajani said that the number one priority was to reach an inter-institutional agreement on the ongoing reform of the so-called Dublin asylum system (see other article).
Weber argued that Europeans can no longer afford to act as if their relationship with Turkey was not a problem. The Parliament has taken position in favour of suspending accession talks, but the member states are by no means united over the matter (see EUROPE 11857). On migration, the EPP leader called for all member states to respect the recent judgement of the Court legitimising the temporary mechanism to relocate asylum seekers from Greece and Italy (see EUROPE 11856).
The S&D group called for more social and tax justice, to ensure, in particular, that the web giants pay their fair share of tax where they carry out their activities. At Wednesday's plenary session, Pittella is to address the question of the rule of law and arbitrary measures taken by the Polish and Hungarian governments. The Social Democrats are also calling for a deepening of Eurozone governance, with the creation of the European Finance Minister who will monitor public finances and also serve as guardian of employment and cohesion policy. As for migration, they are calling for a balance between measures to step up security and hosting of migrants, for instance by setting in place legal migration channels. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Marion Fontana)