Liberum veto curse

The union of the European Council, by the European Council, for the European Council, shall perish from the earth. 

The Future of Europe address: democratic government and sufficient powers instead of liberum veto 

 

What does European power mean? 

The necessity of a Constitution, at least equally energetic with the one proposed…It rests upon axioms as simple as they are universal: the means ought to be proportioned to the end… (Hamilton, The Federalist Papers XXIII)

Ralf Grahn

P.S. [Update 6 June 2021] Here is what I mean, the proposal to the Conference on the Future of Europe:

Stronger together: A democratic European Federation

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.

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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

Future of Europe to meet European Council

We are approaching the moment of truth. Let us wait for the “Leaders’ Agenda” president Donald Tusk is going to present to the European Council (EUCO), before we definitively state that the EU27 heads of state or government have become impetus takers, instead of impetus providers, as they imagined in Article 15(1) TEU. But the years since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force have revealed the limitations of an intergovernmental EU, while the world has become even more challenging.

The novelty is that there is an ongoing future of Europe debate. Clearer views about the need for capability and democracy have reached EU institutions, with reform winds in the European Parliament, the European Commission and even parts of the European Council.

 

European Parliament

In the aftermath of the UK’s Brexit referendum, the European Parliament adopted a 28 June 2016 resolution on the need for a better European Union, based on using the Lisbon Treaty to the full and completed by a revision of the Treaties. On 16 February 2017 the Parliament elaborated on the theme through three resolutions: one on utilising the flexibilities of the Lisbon Treaty, a second on treaty reform proper, and a third one about creating a budgetary capacity for the euro area (EPRS note).

The one plus three European Parliament resolutions are P8_TA(2016)0294, followed by P8_TA(2017)0049, P8_TA(2017)0048 and P8_TA(2017)0050.  

Juncker Commission

The president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker used his State of the Union 2017 (SOTEU) address SPEECH/17/3165 to outline proposals for the near future (draft Commission Work Programme for 2018), as well as more long-term initiatives  to make the EU more capable, by using the flexibilities of the EU treaties. (The State of the Union 2017 web page offers a convenient brochure and other references for those interested.)

Well before the SOTEU speech, starting 1 March 2017, the Juncker Commission launched a public debate on the future of Europe. First came the White Paper:

White Paper on the Future of Europe: Reflections and scenarios for the EU27 by 2025; Brussels, 1.3.2017 COM(2017) 2025 final

The White Paper contained analysis and five imaginary scenarios based on conflicting ambitions for the future of the European project. The White Paper promised to deliver further food for thought and debate (page 18):

The European Commission will contribute to that discussion in the months ahead with a series of reflection papers on the following topics:

• developing the social dimension of Europe;

• deepening the Economic and Monetary Union, on the basis of the Five Presidents' Report of June 2015;

• harnessing globalisation;

• the future of Europe’s defence;

• the future of EU finances.

Known as Reflection papers and stimulating public discussion beyond the Rome Declaration from the EU27 leaders, the five documents are:

Reflection paper on the social dimension of Europe; Brussels, 26.4.2017 COM(2017) 206 final

Reflection paper on harnessing globalisation; Brussels, 10.5.2017 COM(2017) 240 final

Reflection paper on the deepening of the economic and monetary union; Brussels, 31.5.2017 COM(2017) 291 final

Reflection paper on the future of European defence; Brussels, 7.6.2017 COM(2017) 315 final

Reflection paper on the future of EU finances; Brussels, 28.6.2017 COM(2017) 358 final  

Because I have used references to the austere but readable Eur-Lex versions, I owe a mention to those who prefer the pastel coloured “printed” versions of the Commission’s White Paper and Reflection papers (including the annexes) that they can be found through the web page White paper on the future of Europe and the way forward.  

Twitter reflects at least parts of the multilingual pan-European public debate under the hashtag #FutureOfEurope.

President Macron

On 26 September 2017 the Sorbonne speech of the president of France Emmanuel Macron was an eloquent call for European sovereignty in a challenging, even dangerous world. The president sprinkled his speech with examples of reforms to make the European Union more capable and resilient.

President Macron has told the public that France is going to recognise the symbols of the European Union 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. This would be an opportunity for ten remaining EU27 to follow suit. You find the declaration on page 355 of the consolidated EU Treaties (2016).

New interventions and discussion regardings Macron’s EU reform ideas may appear under the Twitter hashtag #InitiativeEurope.

European Economic and Social Committee

The consultative European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has taken initial steps in the discussion about the future of Europe, by adopting a preliminary resolution on 5 July 2017 and by publishing a compilation of national consultations of organized civil society on the White Paper on the Future of Europe (216 pages). The EESC is preparing an opinion.

Committee of the Regions

According to president Karl-Heinz Lambertz, the consultative European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is preparing an opinion on the future of Europe to be delivered next year (page 8).

Ralf Grahn