The Union of European Federalists (UEF) and the Jean Monnet Association are calling on the pro-European political groups that will be formed in the European Parliament after the June elections, to make their support for the political figure who will be appointed to preside over the European Commission conditional on the latter’s support for the launching of a Convention tasked with the “federalist reform” of the European Treaties.
And the European Council on 27 and 28 June must act on Parliament’s request to convene such a Convention (see EUROPE 13298/7), add the two organisations in a joint appeal published on Tuesday 7 May.
Promoter of the initiative, MEP Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spanish), who is President of the UEF, listed three priorities for federalist political forces in the context of the European elections: - mobilise in favour of a high voter turnout in order to “combat euroscepticism”; - promote the importance of a debate on “European issues”, whereas campaigns in the Member States too often focus on national issues; - put pressure on the European Council to respond to the European Parliament’s request, in accordance with the obligation set out in the Treaties (Article 48 TEU).
Guy Verhofstadt MEP (Renew Europe, Belgian) believes that the future President of the European Commission would be well advised to commit - before the Parliament elections - to a reform of the EU’s institutional architecture. Supported by Sandro Gozi (Renew Europe, Italian), he advocated for the creation of an intergroup dedicated to reform of the Treaties within the future European Parliament, in order to formalise the current, more informal Spinelli Group.
See the appeal: https://aeur.eu/f/c61 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)