Future of Europe initiatives

The European Parliament, the European Commission and its president Jean-Claude Juncker, as well as the French president Emmanuel Macron, have provided substantive initiatives for the ongoing debate about the future of Europe.  

This blog post provides the main references for contemplation, discussion and engagement.

European Parliament

The directly elected European Parliament, which represents the citizens of the union, launched a real discussion, by setting out its vision for the future of Europe in three resolutions:

European Parliament resolution P8_TA(2017)0049 of 16 February 2017 on improving the functioning of the European Union building on the potential of the Lisbon Treaty (2014/2249(INI)) [rapporteurs Elmar Brok and Mercedes Bresso]

European Parliament resolution P8_TA(2017)0048  of 16 February 2017 on possible evolutions of and adjustments to the current institutional set-up of the European Union (2014/2248(INI)) [rapporteur Guy Verhofstadt]

European Parliament resolution P8_TA(2017)0050 of 16 February 2017 on budgetary capacity for the euro area (2015/2344(INI)) [rapporteurs Reimer Böge and Pervenche Berès]

White Paper and reflection papers

The European Commission, which promotes the general interest of the union, invited the EU institutions and all EU citizens to a broad debate, by publishing its White Paper on the Future of  Europe and the five reflection papers about the social dimension, globalisation, the economic and monetary union (EMU),European defence and EU finances:

White Paper on the future of Europe: Reflections and scenarios for the EU27 by 2025

Reflection paper on the social dimension of Europe

Reflection paper on harnessing globalisation

Reflection paper on the deepening of the economic and monetary union

Reflection paper on the future of European defence

Reflection pages on the future of EU finances

President Jean-Claude Juncker promised to take the ideas in the White Paper and the reflection papers forward in his State of the Union 2017 speech. The Future of Europe debate is open for everyone and it continues until the elections to the European Parliament in June 2019.

State of the Union 2017

The European Commission’s State of the Union 2017 web page offers us access to the references we need, president Jean-Claude Juncker’s State of the Union (SOTEU) address SPEECH/17/3165 with the letter of intent and the roadmap for a more united, stronger and more democratic union.

Commission Work Programme 2018   

On 24 October 2017 the SOTEU speech and the Commission’s letter of intent with the roadmap graduated into the Commission Work Programme 2018: An agenda for a more united, stronger and more democratic Europe COM(2017) 650, with five annexes and the related communication on better regulation COM(2017) 651, accompanied by the staff working document SWD(2017) 675.

The communications are still available only in English, French and German, but @EurLex kindly informed me that translation work is ongoing, so new language versions may appear.

I presented the CWP 2018 in the blog entries Commission Work Programme 2018 and New and REFIT initiatives in Commission Work Programme 2018 plus Many EU priority proposals pending.    

President Macron

You can find links to the Initiative pour l’Europe by the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, in the original French at the Elysée Palace website, as well as two translations of his full motivational Sorbonne speech in the blog post Macron’s Initiative for Europe in English and German.

European Council

In the European Union designed by the heads of state or government, they (the European Council EUCO) should provide the union with the necessary impetus for its development and define the general political directions and priorities, according to Article 15(1) TEU.

Why have I neglected their role in the debate about the future of Europe until now?

After the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, the presidents and prime ministers of EU27 started their own reflection period. Their Bratislava Declaration and Roadmap promised to make their union a success, and it evoked a number of important challenges to tackle.

But they reflected only among themselves and saw the 25 March 2017 as the end of the discussion, which petered out into the Rome Declaration.

Does the European Council participate in the future of Europe debate in an open manner, even when a discussion becomes unavoidable?  Has the European Council acted effectively in line with suggestions from the European Parliament, proposals from the European Commission, recommendations from international organisations and assessments form think tanks and researchers? Has EUCO listened to and engaged with the citizens of the union? Has it based its reasoning on the best interests of the citizens or the general interest of the union? Has EUCO ever honestly confronted the structural flaws of the European Union?

There are no signs that the European Council has even discussed the European Parliament’s resolutions or the Commission’s White Paper ahead of the Rome Declaration, or the reflection papers  later, as part of the ongoing, open Future of Europe debate.

Only after president Juncker’s State of the Union and roadmap proposals and president Macron’s initiative for Europe gained a foothold inside the European Council, did the heads of state or government after an informal discussion endorse a Leaders’ Agenda for 2017-2019 proposed by EUCO president Tusk, a timetable without any political reform commitments.

For these reasons it is hard to see the European Council as  a genuine provider of needed impetus for the future of the European Union, but more of a receiver. How constructive EUCO is going to be in that reduced role, remains to be seen.

Ralf Grahn

Future of Europe: Leaders’ Agenda for Gothenburg

Our discussion about the European Council (EUCO) and the new Leaders’ Agenda for thematic meetings continued with a look at the briefings from the  European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) and the EUCO conclusions of 19 October and EU27 conclusions 20 October 2017 (Article 50 TEU), in EPRS: keeping tabs on the European Council.

The Leaders’ Agenda timetable was described by president Tusk as a living document, apt to change over time, but let us take a look at the near future. Less than four weeks from now, the heads of state or government are going to convene in Gothenburg (Sweden).          

Gothenburg Social Summit

Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Löfven and the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker have invited the leaders to a Social Summit for Fair Jobs and Growth in Gothenburg, 17 November 2017. The Social Summit website already offers some information and  the #SocialSummit17 hashtag on Twitter provides occasional updates ahead of the gathering.

As a background, most of my spring and autumn 2017 blog posts about the social market economy, the social pillar and the reflection paper on the social dimension of the European Union can be found through the blog post Future of Europe: social dimension, except three later ones in Swedish, which look at the Nordic EU-members in the discussion about the future of Europe: the general orientation in Norden i EU-utkanten?, then the introductory entry about the Commission’s White Paper  Vitboken om EU:s framtid i Norden and the article about the reflection paper on the social dimension  Diskussionsunderlaget om EU:s sociala dimension i Norden.

Ahead of the Social Summit, readers interested in the labour markets in the EU and related social pillar and dimension matters, can find a handy compilation on the EPRS Blog about what think tanks have produced lately.

***

The other issue on the Leaders’ Agenda for this meeting is described as Education and Culture (30th anniversary of Erasmus).

The European Parliament and the European Commission already celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus Programme in Strasbourg, 13 June 2017. The Council of the European Union provides an overview of ongoing issues in the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council configuration (EYCS) during the Estonian Council presidency, as well as the main results of the previous EYCS Council meeting 22-23 May 2017. The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council configuration (EPSCO) is another potential source of issues for the European Council in Gothenburg under the headline Education and Culture (30th anniversary of Erasmus).

In the context of the Social Summit, perhaps the European Council wants to deal with the Youth Employment Initiative (EYI), supporting the Youth Guarantee efforts in distressed regions with high youth unemployment, or show interest in matters rarely seen on its agenda, but let us leave guessing and look at possible EUCO value added later, when there is something more concrete to work with.

Ralf Grahn

EPRS: keeping tabs on the European Council

The blog posts European Council: United we’re stuck? and European Council: Leaders’ Agenda presented facts and expressed doubts regarding the efforts of the EUCO president Donald Tusk to overcome paralysis or stagnation among the heads of state or government.

It remains to be seen, if the Bratislava implementation report, the description in the invitation letter and the timetable downloadable from EUCO’s Leaders’ Agenda web page, are going to turn the European Council into the impetus provider they imagined in Article 15(1) TEU, or remain an impetus taker and the main obstacle among the EU institutions and others in the quest for a better future of Europe.

The first meeting on Tusk’s list was the October 2017 European Council.

October 2017 European Council

The European Parliament is not only an initiator of EU reform, but the institution representing the citizens of the union keeps tabs on what the European Commission (promoting the general interest) and the intergovernmental institutions - the Council of the European Union and the European Council - do. Instrumental is the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), which publishes studies, evaluations, fact sheets and briefings.

Ahead of the October 2017 European Council and with a view to the proposed Leaders’ Agenda, the European Parliamentary Research Service Blog published a background post on what makes it to the EUCO agenda and why, as well as an outlook for the European Council meeting 19-20 October 2017 (including the Article 50 TEU, i.e. Brexit part), also in a more easy to read briefing form (pdf), plus links to three other publications: an updated check-list of European Council conclusions, a briefing on the European Council and the 2017 State of the Union proposals, and a list of the current members of the European Council.

They are all relevant references beyond the EUCO meeting, although here I single out the Pre-European Council briefing (outlook), which can be read as a background note to the European Council conclusions 19 October 2017 EUCO 14/17 and 20 October 2017 (Article 50) EUCO XT 20014/17, regarding migration, digital Europe (in the aftermath of the Tallinn Digital Summit, the jewel in the crown of the Estonian presidency of the EU Council), security and defence with a view to launching a Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) before the end of the year, and external relations, which were discussed during the first day.

The briefing note (outlook) point 7 and the EU27 conclusions regarding the Article 50 TEU UK withdrawal (Brexit) negotiations can also be read in parallel. However, for this blog the EPRS briefing point 6, regarding the Future of Europe (discussed informally by EUCO), is of special interest, although by now we have the Leaders’ Agenda.

Ralf Grahn

European Council: Leaders’ Agenda

The blog post European Council: United we’re stuck? noted the effort of the EUCO president Donald Tusk to cut the Gordian knots among the heads of state or government (and more generally the governments of the member states), by a structured approach to difficult issues. At the same time, the entry doubted if a schedule for thematic meetings would be more successful now than at the time of Herman Van Rompuy. What if sub-optimal procedures and outcomes for EU citizens and enterprises are inevitable consequences of a basically intergovernmental union the member states have designed to suit themselves?

Do we find anything to add to our knowledge about the Leaders’ Agenda after the EUCO meeting?

The customary introductory speech by the president of the European Parliament touched on a number of issues. On the future of Europe Antonio Tajani reminded the national leaders:

Europe is thinking hard about its own future. We have to find answers to two fundamental questions: what it is that we want to do together in the future, and how we want to do it.

As you will remember, Parliament was the first to contribute to this reflection process, through the Brok-Bresso, Böge-Bérès and Verhofstadt reports.

President Juncker has presented the Commission White Paper setting out the possible scenarios and, more recently, President Macron put on the table a range of ideas and proposals that warrant in-depth consideration.

Parliament, as a democratic and open forum for debate, aims – and has the institutional duty – to be at the centre of the debate.

That is why the Conference of Presidents has decided to devote a series of  debates in plenary to the future of Europe, and to invite the Heads of State and Government and leading European figures who wish to speak to outline their vision and debate with us.

I have already extended that invitation to some of you in person, and will be sending everyone a written invitation in the next few days.

We have noted that one of the items on the Leaders’ Agenda concerns the Spitzenkandidaten. I am sure that your aim is to make that arrangement the norm.

Thank you for listening. I look forward to your coming to Parliament to talk about Europe.

 

The European Council informs us that the Leaders’ Agenda was endorsed. During the coming two years, the national leaders are going to deal with the most contentious issues, such as the Eurozone reform, migration crisis, internal security, trade and the future financing of the EU, according to Tusk.

Tusk’s added remarks on the Leaders’ Agenda described the new work method as somewhat more direct and more informal than normally. Naturally, he expressed his satisfaction that the leaders are going to work united, hand-in-hand, with all the member states aboard.

According to the EUCO meeting page, the leaders met informally to endorse the Leaders’ Agenda, “a concrete work programme to guide EU’s action in the future”. This seems to explain why there is nothing in the European Council conclusions, but we have Tusk’s remarks (above), plus the downloadable Bratislava implementation report and Leaders’ agenda, as well as the description in the EUCO invitation letter,  mentioned in the previous blog entry.

In light of the video recordings of the joint press conference of Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, Tusk repeated his written statement on the Leaders’ Agenda verbatim, but there is no indication that the journalists showed any interest.

The European Council has offered an initial response to the Future of Europe debate, with EU reform calls from the European Parliament, the European Commission, the French president Emmanuel Macron, think tanks, civil society organisations and individual EU citizens.

Will anything come out to the EUCO timetable? - The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Ralf Grahn

European Council: United we’re stuck?

After the 18 October 2017 tripartite social summit the president  Donald Tusk offered an optimistic view on the role of the European Council (EUCO) for the future of Europe in general and the deepening of the economic and monetary union (EMU) in particular:

From all quarters, there is now a new willingness to energise and enrich our work, draw on new ideas, maintain our unity and increase the dynamism of the EU. I will be calling on leaders to work together according to a strict timetable on the issues we have identified as the most pressing, from migration to EMU reform, where we are deadlocked and where the Gordian knot needs to be cut.

The day before, Tusk had presented his Leaders’ Agenda, based on how the heads of state had implemented the tasks they had set themselves in Bratislava last autumn and in their Rome declaration in March 2017. On twelve pages the document Implementing the Bratislava Roadmap ticks off various actions without analysis of effectiveness or efficiency, nor does it offer a critical framework for evaluating if the goals and actions are commensurate with the the challenges.

On the basis of this implementation report, who would know that due to the member state governments the economic and monetary union (EMU), with a euro area population of 341 million and the second most important reserve currency in the world, still stands on clay feet: feeble, complicated, opaque and undemocratic?

As an indirect, but honest admission of the failings of the national governments, Tusk’s Leaders’ Agenda proposed to the European Council that “we should further step up our efforts and re-energise our work, and, to this effect, set out clearly what we intend to deliver.”

According to the so called Leaders’ Agenda being discussed by the European Council right now, between now and June 2019, thirteen regular EUCO meetings or summits are supposed to deal with a number of subject headlines, a few EU reform issues for each meeting. For the deadlocked issues - quite a lot of them there are - decision notes are promised along the road.

The idea of a longer period of thematic European Council meetings was tried, as proposed by Herman Van Rompuy, the then president of EUCO. Even if I appreciate a systematic and structured approach to strategic issues, I really don’t know if the interests of EU citizens and businesses were better served by these thematic meetings (or the erratic crisis summitry which was the imprint of the Sarkozy era in France).  

Let us see if president Tusk’s optimistic description and principles in the EUCO invitation letter are going to make the heads of state or government change their spots more easily than the leopard.

Is it going to be easier, or even possible to advance according to Tusk’s unity mantra; he keeps repeating: as long as I am here, I will be the guardian of European unity. It is not only my formal role as the President of the European Council, but - above all - it is my true belief. Because unity is, in fact, our most important strength.

It is great that all member states of the European Union are invited to participate and to advance. But does Tusk mean that treaty reform and flexibility are excluded, leaving only enhanced or structured cooperation as a way forward for a group of frustrated member states? (Opaque, ineffective and anti-democratic intergovernmental cooperation is not exactly the future of Europe model I would want to see.)

***

Tusk’s invitation letter and Leaders Agenda discuss issues as if EUCO were part of the solution. But what should be done if the union of heads of states or government (member state governments) is the cause of poor outcomes for EU citizens and businesses, powers at the European  insufficient for real security and progress for Europeans, and if the European Council is an obstacle on the road to full democratic rights for the citizens of the union?

Ralf Grahn

A symbolic opportunity for the European Council

The European Council (EUCO) meets 19 and 20 October 2017 to agree on how to respond to the reform impulses for the future of Europe. The EUCO president Donald Tusk is consulting with the EU27 heads of state or government to present a “Leaders’ Agenda”.

President Macron has told the public that France is going to recognise the symbols of the European Union, including the European flag with twelve stars,  at the EUCO meeting next week. This probably means a notification to join the declaration 52 by 16 EU member states annexed to the treaties (page 355):

Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic declare that the flag with a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background, the anthem based on the "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, the motto "United in diversity", the euro as the currency of the European Union and Europe Day on 9 May will for them continue as symbols to express the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it.

This offers an opportunity for ten remaining EU27 members to show engagement for the European Union they have designed, putting themselves at the centre, namely: Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.

Ralf Grahn