The EU needs to be able to act, not just react. Permanently governing through emergency is neither efficient nor democratic.
Europe has reached one of those moments when crises stop being temporary emergencies and become a test of political survival. The multilateral order is deteriorating rapidly. Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine and now it is intensifying its hybrid attacks against European countries. It can no longer simply be taken for granted that the United States will guarantee the security of Europe under any circumstances. China consolidates its position as a world power, meanwhile instability in the Middle East threatens trade and access to critical resources. Climate change adds another layer of insecurity. Internally, nationalist forces are gaining ground in the face of several national elections to be held in 2027, as has just been seen in Saxony-Anhalt. Only a Union capable of rising to the current challenges can reverse this trend.
Europe has begun to wake up to this new reality. But waking up is not enough. For the first time in generations, Europeans must be able to guarantee their own defense, their economic security and their technological sovereignty. Recent crises have shown what Europe can achieve when necessity forces governments to act together. The response to the pandemic, common debt and the unprecedented support given to Ukraine would have once seemed politically impossible. But governing permanently through emergency is neither efficient nor democratic. Europe needs to be able to act, not just react. We need stronger leadership, greater political cohesion, and institutional capacity.
The problem is that the European Union was not designed to exercise power on this scale. In foreign and security policy, unanimity allows a single government to prevent the Union from acting. The same is true in key policy areas pointed out by Letta and Draghi as crucial to regain competitiveness. The EU budget remains too small for the responsibilities Europeans expect it to assume. The European Parliament lacks genuine fiscal powers and a decisive role in peace and war issues. The result is a contradiction: Europeans need and demand more European solutions, while the Union’s institutions remain constrained by rules designed for another era.
Therefore, the priority must be to overcome unanimity. Current treaties allow decisions to be expanded by majority. The calls “gateways” must be activated as soon as possible, in particular in the Union’s foreign policy and financial framework.
Alternatively, the European Parliament has already proposed a comprehensive reform of the treaties. However, the European Council has not yet opened the constitutional debate requested by the European Parliament. This blockage must end. The Union should initiate the treaty review procedure in accordance with Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union and, at the same time, use Article 42 to move towards a genuine common European defense as part of the NATO European Pillar. A Union that defends its citizens cannot depend indefinitely on 27 separate national political decision-making chains.
The reform is equally necessary in the fiscal field. Continental public goods require European resources. A substantially larger EU budget should be financed with real own resources, rather than relying mainly on national contributions, and the European Parliament should exercise the normal budgetary powers that correspond to a democratic parliament. Joint European spending on defense, technology, energy or infrastructure can generate economies of scale that fragmented national spending cannot achieve.
Enlargement makes reform even more urgent. Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans have a European future. But a Union that could approach 35 members or more cannot function effectively if each government retains a veto over essential decisions. Reform before or in parallel with enlargement does not mean putting obstacles in the way of candidate countries; It means ensuring that they join a Union capable of functioning. Parliament must be ready to use its power to approve the annual and multiannual budget to encourage State action on the gateways, treaty reform, common defense and financing of European public goods.
Meanwhile, those willing to share more sovereignty should start moving forward together. European integration has done it before. Schengen and the euro started with distinct groups. A new vanguard could do the same in several areas, including defense and foreign policy, remaining open to any EU state willing to accept decisions by majority. The reform of Twenty-seven and a federal vanguard are not opposing strategies: the second can make the first possible. The E6 group —which brings together Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands to accelerate cooperation on investment, euro, defense and economic security— could be a starting point for this pioneering coalition.
The seventieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome- in March 2027, provides a historic opportunity. The European Council should commemorate this by committing to a stronger political union, activating the gateways and opening the reform of the Treaties. Citizens, national parliaments and the European Parliament should participate in this constitutional debate through an open conference.
Jean Monnet and Altiero Spinelli understood that European unity advances when the political imagination meets historical necessity. That need is before us again. Europeans need Europe no less to preserve their nations. On the contrary, they need a Europe powerful enough to protect them, their values and their interests in a world of empires.
It’s time to build the United States of Europe.
No_Reaction7092 on
Op-ed by Josep Borrel and Romano Prodi urging to speed up the ever closer Union, push through treaty reforms and build a full-blown United States of Europe. This echoes the calls by Mario Draghi and other prominent Europeans for a federal Europe. Around 30% of Draghi’s reforms have been implemented and the number could reach 60% at the end of next year estimates Institut Montaigne. But those reforms are all within the treaties still. The authors argue that living in permanent crisis mode is inefficient, undemocratic and could even be a recipe for disaster.
European Parliament has approved opening up full constitutional/treaty reforms, but the European Council (some national leaders) is stalling. Borrell and Prodi are telling them to end the blockade and get moving, if necessary with a “federation of the willing”. The rest can always join later, as with Schengen and the euro for example. It is how the EU has always worked.
Right_Lecture3147 on
FACT: 90% of journalists stop posting articles demanding a federalised EU just before it magically federalises
bandeng_asep on
You can’t build the United States of Europe if you’re still trying to legislate everything out of existence.
4 Comments
The EU needs to be able to act, not just react. Permanently governing through emergency is neither efficient nor democratic.
Europe has reached one of those moments when crises stop being temporary emergencies and become a test of political survival. The multilateral order is deteriorating rapidly. Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine and now it is intensifying its hybrid attacks against European countries. It can no longer simply be taken for granted that the United States will guarantee the security of Europe under any circumstances. China consolidates its position as a world power, meanwhile instability in the Middle East threatens trade and access to critical resources. Climate change adds another layer of insecurity. Internally, nationalist forces are gaining ground in the face of several national elections to be held in 2027, as has just been seen in Saxony-Anhalt. Only a Union capable of rising to the current challenges can reverse this trend.
Europe has begun to wake up to this new reality. But waking up is not enough. For the first time in generations, Europeans must be able to guarantee their own defense, their economic security and their technological sovereignty. Recent crises have shown what Europe can achieve when necessity forces governments to act together. The response to the pandemic, common debt and the unprecedented support given to Ukraine would have once seemed politically impossible. But governing permanently through emergency is neither efficient nor democratic. Europe needs to be able to act, not just react. We need stronger leadership, greater political cohesion, and institutional capacity.
The problem is that the European Union was not designed to exercise power on this scale. In foreign and security policy, unanimity allows a single government to prevent the Union from acting. The same is true in key policy areas pointed out by Letta and Draghi as crucial to regain competitiveness. The EU budget remains too small for the responsibilities Europeans expect it to assume. The European Parliament lacks genuine fiscal powers and a decisive role in peace and war issues. The result is a contradiction: Europeans need and demand more European solutions, while the Union’s institutions remain constrained by rules designed for another era.
Therefore, the priority must be to overcome unanimity. Current treaties allow decisions to be expanded by majority. The calls “gateways” must be activated as soon as possible, in particular in the Union’s foreign policy and financial framework.
Alternatively, the European Parliament has already proposed a comprehensive reform of the treaties. However, the European Council has not yet opened the constitutional debate requested by the European Parliament. This blockage must end. The Union should initiate the treaty review procedure in accordance with Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union and, at the same time, use Article 42 to move towards a genuine common European defense as part of the NATO European Pillar. A Union that defends its citizens cannot depend indefinitely on 27 separate national political decision-making chains.
The reform is equally necessary in the fiscal field. Continental public goods require European resources. A substantially larger EU budget should be financed with real own resources, rather than relying mainly on national contributions, and the European Parliament should exercise the normal budgetary powers that correspond to a democratic parliament. Joint European spending on defense, technology, energy or infrastructure can generate economies of scale that fragmented national spending cannot achieve.
Enlargement makes reform even more urgent. Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans have a European future. But a Union that could approach 35 members or more cannot function effectively if each government retains a veto over essential decisions. Reform before or in parallel with enlargement does not mean putting obstacles in the way of candidate countries; It means ensuring that they join a Union capable of functioning. Parliament must be ready to use its power to approve the annual and multiannual budget to encourage State action on the gateways, treaty reform, common defense and financing of European public goods.
Meanwhile, those willing to share more sovereignty should start moving forward together. European integration has done it before. Schengen and the euro started with distinct groups. A new vanguard could do the same in several areas, including defense and foreign policy, remaining open to any EU state willing to accept decisions by majority. The reform of Twenty-seven and a federal vanguard are not opposing strategies: the second can make the first possible. The E6 group —which brings together Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands to accelerate cooperation on investment, euro, defense and economic security— could be a starting point for this pioneering coalition.
The seventieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome- in March 2027, provides a historic opportunity. The European Council should commemorate this by committing to a stronger political union, activating the gateways and opening the reform of the Treaties. Citizens, national parliaments and the European Parliament should participate in this constitutional debate through an open conference.
Jean Monnet and Altiero Spinelli understood that European unity advances when the political imagination meets historical necessity. That need is before us again. Europeans need Europe no less to preserve their nations. On the contrary, they need a Europe powerful enough to protect them, their values and their interests in a world of empires.
It’s time to build the United States of Europe.
Op-ed by Josep Borrel and Romano Prodi urging to speed up the ever closer Union, push through treaty reforms and build a full-blown United States of Europe. This echoes the calls by Mario Draghi and other prominent Europeans for a federal Europe. Around 30% of Draghi’s reforms have been implemented and the number could reach 60% at the end of next year estimates Institut Montaigne. But those reforms are all within the treaties still. The authors argue that living in permanent crisis mode is inefficient, undemocratic and could even be a recipe for disaster.
European Parliament has approved opening up full constitutional/treaty reforms, but the European Council (some national leaders) is stalling. Borrell and Prodi are telling them to end the blockade and get moving, if necessary with a “federation of the willing”. The rest can always join later, as with Schengen and the euro for example. It is how the EU has always worked.
FACT: 90% of journalists stop posting articles demanding a federalised EU just before it magically federalises
You can’t build the United States of Europe if you’re still trying to legislate everything out of existence.