20 May 2013

FT: Berlin plans to streamline EU but avoid wholesale treaty change

Berlin is drawing up plans for treaty changes to streamline decision-making in the eurozone, while stopping short of any wholesale renegotiation that would allow the UK to repatriate powers from Brussels.

Although Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has expressed her desire to keep the UK inside the EU, the move being discussed in Berlin would thwart a plan by David Cameron, UK prime minister, to piggyback on eurozone reforms to renegotiate the British relationship with Brussels.

The strategy would take as a model two recently adopted standalone treaties – one creating the new €500 billion eurozone rescue fund and the other enshrining budget discipline in a “fiscal compact” – that were written and ratified in a matter of months.

Mr Cameron had hoped to exploit renewed interest in Berlin for wholesale EU treaty changes as a way to renegotiate the UK’s membership terms. But Berlin’s strategy for a new, narrowly focused treaty could force the UK premier into a repeat of the dilemma he faced in December 2011, when Mr Cameron rejected the fiscal compact treaty but most other EU countries went along without him.

In a full convention, Mr Cameron would be able to force the issue of repatriating powers on to the agenda. But by examining a new treaty outside the Lisbon requirements, Berlin hopes to avoid such a time-consuming and freewheeling process. Germany officials noted that other “basic laws”, including the German and US constitutions, can be amended without a debate on all aspects of national governance.

EU treaties do provide for “simplified” changes that do not require a full-scale convention. But such procedures can only be used to change the internal running of the EU and not to transfer powers from national governments to Brussels.The timing of treaty changes remains a matter of debate but it could come as early as next year, after elections to the European Parliament in May. The way ahead is due to be discussed at a summit next month.

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