The Swedish Minister for EU affairs, Jessika Roswall, said on Wednesday 25 January that the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union would forward the European Parliament’s position on a reform of the EU treaties to the European Council, once the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) has refined - probably in May - the position already expressed twice by the Parliament.
“We intend to forward the conclusions of the AFCO Committee to the European Council”, said Ms Roswall in response to questions from, among others, Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spanish) and Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, German).
Despite pressure from MEPs, the previous Czech Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2022 did not invite Member States to share their views on the launch of a convention to reform the treaties, believing that it was necessary to wait for MEPs to finalise their work (see EUROPE 13076/27).
Nevertheless, the Swedish Presidency intends to continue work on what the Council could achieve in order to implement some of the recommendations of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Among other things, Ms Roswall said, it would be necessary to “further explore” how the Council could make use of the ‘passerelle’ clauses in the existing treaties, for Member States to decide on certain issues by qualified majority.
In 2022, the former Czech Presidency suggested focusing on specific areas of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (civilian CSDP missions, sectoral/individual sanctions, etc.) In its progress report on the follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe in the EU Council, it notes that there are differences of opinion between Member States on the issue of passerelle clauses.
See the Czech Presidency’s report: https://aeur.eu/f/53r
European political parties. In her overview of the Swedish Council Presidency’s priorities related to institutional issues, the Swedish minister hoped that an agreement could be reached with the European Parliament negotiators on the reform of the European political parties and their foundations (see EUROPE 13022/3), hopefully in time for the reform to be in place before the European elections in 2024.
Like one of the co-rapporteurs on the matter, Charles Goerens (Renew Europe, Luxembourgish), Ms Roswall noted that there was a “blockage” in the interinstitutional negotiations on two elements: - the funding of referendum campaigns by European parties; - the participation in European parties of political parties from non-European countries.
Mr Goerens said that European political parties should have the possibility of participating in referendum campaigns with a European impact, such as on the granting of EU candidate country status to a third country or on the exit of a Member State from the EU. Unlike the Council, the Parliament wants to allow a party from a Council of Europe member state to be involved in a European political party. For example, the efforts of the ruling parties in Ukraine and Moldova to move closer to the EU should be supported, Mr Goerens said.
Electoral law. Ms Roswall doubted that the reform of the EU’s electoral law would come into force before the European elections in spring 2024, as an European Parliament/EU Council agreement would be needed in spring 2023 for some of the measures advocated by MEPs, such as the creation of a European constituency, to be applicable at the next election.
“Discussions have shown that finding unanimity in the Council on major aspects of the proposal is unlikely in the near future”, she revealed (see EUROPE 13045/13).
The Swedish Presidency will hold two specific dialogues on the rule of law with Slovakia and Finland, which will provide a first comprehensive overview of the situation in the 27 Member States, followed by a second phase with Belgium, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)