Negotiations are underway in the European Parliament on how best to formulate MEPs’ requests to the Council of the European Union to set up a Convention to reform the European treaties in order to maintain the momentum generated by the Conference on the Future of Europe.
In early May, the Parliament asked the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) to draw up a draft report detailing how the Treaties could be amended, as required by Article 48 of the treaty on which the convening of a Convention by the EU Council acting by a qualified majority of Member States would be based (see EUROPE 12945/7).
It is not clear at this stage whether the text to be drafted will come from the AFCO Committee or the Conference of Presidents of the political groups (CoP). The first option would take longer to finalise, not least because of the time needed for political debate and input from other parliamentary committees. It carries the risk that the European Parliament will not be able to adopt a text by the end of June, i.e. before the end of the French Presidency of the EU Council, unless extraordinary meetings are held.
However, the extraordinary meeting of the AFCO Committee, which was initially scheduled for Thursday 2 June, has been cancelled. An indicative timetable seen by EUROPE suggested that the European Parliament should adopt a draft resolution submitted by the AFCO Committee at the mini-plenary session on 22-23 June, the eve of the EU summit.
If the CoP route is chosen, a text could be submitted to the plenary session starting on Monday 6 June in Strasbourg, but it would inevitably be more condensed than a draft report by the AFCO Committee. The CoP meeting on Thursday 2 June should indicate the way forward.
The political groups in favour of institutional reform aim to work out the details of the text as early as possible in order to avoid tabling amendments for the plenary.
The first draft text has been polished, according to a parliamentary source interviewed on Monday 30 May.
Building on the outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe (see EUROPE 12948/1 and 12947/18), MEPs propose in this draft report that health and civic education should become shared competences between the EU and Member States. Articles 192 and 194 of the TFEU would be amended to ensure the EU’s energy autonomy.
From an institutional point of view, a qualified majority decision of Member States in the EU Council would replace unanimity in the areas of taxation (Article 113), social and working conditions (Article 153), as well as for reforming the EU Electoral Law (Article 223) and launching enhanced cooperation (Articles 329, 330 and 333). MEPs propose an emergency clause through which the EU Council - by a qualified majority of EU countries - and the Parliament could ask the Commission to take initiatives in extraordinary circumstances.
However, the decision to admit a state to the EU and any changes to the EU’s fundamental values would still require unanimity among the EU27.
The European Parliament wants to act as an equal in decisions on the EU budget, including the ‘resources’ part (Articles 311 and 322). It calls for a right of legislative initiative (Article 225) and the possibility of introducing a pan-European referendum on specific issues directly affecting European citizens.
Finally, MEPs call for the creation of an EU associate member status, which would allow certain European countries that adhere to the EU’s democratic values to cooperate with Member States in the fields of security, energy, transport, infrastructure and the free movement of people.
This idea is reminiscent of European Council President Charles Michel’s proposal to set up a European Geopolitical Community (see EUROPE 12955/24), an idea first put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron at the wrap-up event of the Conference on the Future of Europe in Strasbourg on 9 May.
See the first draft European Parliament resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/1vi (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)