On Tuesday 18 July, the main political groups in the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the content of a reform of the European treaties.
This report was commissioned to refine the European Parliament’s position after it activated Article 48 of the Treaty in 2022 to ask the Council of the EU to convene a Convention to reform the EU’s institutional architecture. The Member States are using the excuse of this report in preparation to postpone any request to the European Council to take a position on convening a Convention.
According to our information, MEPs are in favour of facilitating decision-making in the Council of the EU by setting the majority threshold at half of the Member States representing at least 50% of the EU population, confirming information published by Politico.
A super majority would continue to apply for decisions to be taken in certain areas of foreign, defence and security policy, while unanimity would still be required for structural decisions such as the enlargement of the EU to include a new Member State.
The negotiators reiterate the European Parliament’s desire to see an end to unanimity in the EU Council on tax issues, even though the ‘Pisapia’ report excludes taxation from the policies that could benefit from the use of ‘passerelle’ clauses (see EUROPE 13220/18).
According to MEPs, it would be up to Parliament to propose the name of the politician to chair the European Commission.
The draft report concocted by the co-rapporteurs, who include Sven Simon (EPP, German), Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, German), Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgian), Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, German) and Helmut Scholz (The Left, German), will be presented to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs on Thursday 7 September with a view to a vote in early October. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)