On Tuesday 20 September, the European Affairs Ministers of the EU Member States will discuss the follow-up to the recommendations of the Conference on the Future of Europe presented on 9 May (see EUROPE 12948/1).
At the end of July, the Czech Presidency of the EU Council distributed a questionnaire surveying national delegations on three questions: - a potential revision of the European treaties; - the use of the ‘passerelle’ clauses already included in the Treaties, which make it possible to move from unanimity to a qualified majority of Member States in decision-making; - increased involvement of citizens in the decision-making process.
“The vast majority of delegations believe that priority should be given at this stage to proposals and initiatives that can be implemented using all the possibilities offered by the current treaty framework”, states the Czech Presidency in a preliminary report obtained by EUROPE. And many countries point out that “most of the proposals from the Conference can be implemented within the existing treaty framework, especially by using their untapped potential”.
Therefore, in the opinion of these delegations, any decision leading to an institutional review must be subject to a “structured and comprehensive” assessment and is, at this stage, “premature”, the Czech Presidency notes.
In her State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clearly sided with the European Parliament in calling for a Convention on the future of Europe (see EUROPE 13021/11).
Next Tuesday, ministers will be asked to state their position on the possible use of the ‘passerelle’ clauses in the EU treaties. On this point, in its preliminary report, the Czech Republic reports “contrasting” views.
Policy areas where a shift from unanimity to qualified majority of Member States could take place include common foreign and security policy (EU sanctions, human rights, CSDP missions), taxation, energy policy and anti-discrimination.
At the beginning of July, the EU Council experts had listed 67 legal bases in the Treaties for which a ‘passerelle’ clause (Article 48(7) TEU) could be used to adopt a legal act in the Council (see EUROPE 12996/18).
On the other hand, the majority of Member States support any initiative to improve citizens’ involvement in EU policy-making, “either through existing tools or through new initiatives recently announced by the Commission”. The latter wishes to integrate the citizens’ panel mechanism tested at the Conference into the upstream development of important legislative proposals, notably on the issue of food waste.
And, according to some delegations, the European citizens’ initiative should be given greater visibility, notes the Czech Presidency.
At the General Affairs Council, the Ministers could finally decide on actions that the EU Council could take autonomously in response to the recommendations of the Conference, in particular by means of specific conclusions or recommendations. Of the 326 recommendations made by the Conference, the Secretariat-General of the EU Council has identified 26 actions.
See the preliminary report of the Czech Presidency: https://aeur.eu/f/34r
See the 26 actions: https://aeur.eu/f/34q (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)