Federalist
dream not dead yet, at least in the European Parliament
Undaunted
by Brexit, leading MEPs are busy writing manifestos for more Europe.
By
Harry Cooper
7/19/16, 5:26 AM CET
Donald Tusk,
Jean-Claude Juncker and other leaders now preach a gospel of
Euro-realism, but there’s still one place where it’s safe to make
bold proposals for reform of the EU in the post-Brexit era, even if
they have little chance of becoming reality: the European Parliament.
Several leading MEPs
are crafting reform manifestos that call for everything from more
integration among eurozone countries to full-on reform of the EU
treaties. Authored by members of three of the assembly’s biggest
political groups — the center-right European People’s Party, the
center-left Socialists, and the centrist Liberals — the reports are
already setting off alarm bells with Euroskeptics across the
Parliament.
Few European leaders
want a repeat of the tortuous negotiations that preceded the
ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. Those who matter,
especially Germany’s Angela Merkel, have already rejected calls for
treaty change in response to the U.K.’s decision to exit the EU.
Even Juncker, president of the European Commission and, to many, the
archetypal federalist, has said that he is “not an advocate for a
United States of Europe.”
But given the
Parliament’s role in Brexit — it doesn’t have a formal part to
play in the negotiations themselves but must approve the final
agreement — EU leaders will not be able to completely ignore the
advice they’re about to get from MEPs on how to fix Europe.
One of the leading
MEPs drafting a report, Guy Verhofstadt, insists the Parliament
should even play a big role in the Brexit talks themselves —
similar to the one it had during negotiations in February on reforms
aimed at keeping the U.K. in the EU. “If we aren’t involved from
day one [in the U.K.’s exit negotiations] we won’t give our
consent,” said Verhofstadt, leader of the assembly’s centrist
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Guy Verhofstadt
gives a press conference in Strasbourg
Guy Verhofstadt
gives a press conference in Strasbourg | John Thys/AFP via Getty
Images
The federalists in
the Parliament think now is the best time to overhaul the EU, arguing
that the rise of anti-EU populist sentiment across the Continent is
being misread. Verhofstadt argues that people “are rejecting Europe
as it is now,” not as it could be. Citing findings from
Eurobarometer, the EU’s official polling agency, he believes people
want more action in areas ranging from securing the EU’s borders to
establishing a digital single market.
This line of
thinking is reflected in the parliamentary reports, which overlap
substantially with each other. A draft report from center-right
German MEP Elmar Brok and center-left Italian MEP Mercedes Bresso
looks at what can be achieved within the Lisbon Treaty as it
currently stands, such as streamlining how legislation is made in
Brussels and enhancing the role of the Parliament in eurozone
governance.
Verhofstadt calls
for full-blown treaty change in order to strip out the various
exemptions that allow countries to opt in and out opt out of EU
rules, such as those that allow the U.K. and Ireland not to
participate in the Schengen area. Instead he wants to create an
“associate status” for those countries that don’t want to fully
participate in the EU.
Proposals from
Socialist French MEP Pervenche Bères and German center-right MEP
Reimer Böge focus on the idea of giving the eurozone its own budget
capacity, reflecting themes in the other two reports.
Parliament’s heavy
hitters
A view that
permeates all the reports is that the intergovernmental approach —
which relies on finding consensus among an increasingly fractious
group of EU countries — is not working. Bresso describes this
process as “thousands of meetings whose result is too little, too
late.”
Verhofstadt said the
coordination is deliberate. By ensuring that each of the reports is
drafted with cross-party support, the federalists hope to secure a
majority of MEPs to ratify them after the summer. The positions would
not have any legal force, but if adopted by a majority vote of the
Parliament there would be some political pressure on EU leaders to
take them into account.
It is also no
coincidence that the lead MEPs hail from Germany, Italy and France,
founding EU member countries whose support would be needed for any
major constitutional reform.
National blocs
are likely to cringe at the notion of “more Europe”
But finding common
ground among Parliament’s political groups beyond a core of
stalwart federalists may prove difficult. Aside from the fact that
proposals from the constitutional affairs committee, the home of two
of the reports, are rarely taken seriously by the rest of the
Parliament, most of Böge’s and Brok’s German compatriots are
extremely hostile to any calls for further eurozone integration. A
much less far-reaching proposal to introduce a European deposit
insurance scheme is snarled up in both the Council and the
Parliament’s economic affairs committee due in large part to German
objections.
And outside the
German center-right delegation, other national blocs are likely to
cringe at the notion of “more Europe,” either with or without an
overhaul of the Lisbon Treaty.
Gunnar Hökmark, a
Swedish MEP in the same group as Böge and Brok, said “a lot of
people agree with Elmar, but a lot of people have other views.” He
dismissed calls for a new eurozone finance minister, suggesting that
Europe “already has a finance minister and he or she is called the
Stability and Growth Pact.”
That was echoed by
Romanian MEP Siegfried Mureşan, also from the EPP and a member of
both the budget and economic affairs committee, who said “the rules
are correct” and dismissed calls for major institutional reform.
Aside from internal
politicking within the EPP, many MEPs wonder why anyone should bother
calling for more Europe at a time when Euroskepticism is on the rise
in many countries. Syed Kamall, British leader of the European
Conservatives and Reformists bloc and a supporter of Brexit, said
recently, “Whatever the challenge, more Europe is not always the
answer. Ignoring the results of national elections and referenda and
saying ‘we continue anyway’ is not a good enough response.”
Even Bresso,
co-author of one of the reports, thinks that “now is not a good
time for those who want to advance the ‘ever closer union.'”
Quentin Ariès
contributed to this article.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário