08 November 2023

Fondation Robert Schuman's Triantafyllou: Treaty revision: is Europe ready for a qualitative leap?

The discussion about a future revision of the European treaties[1] is back on the agenda. In June 2022, following the conference on the future of Europe, after consulting European citizens directly, presented its conclusions in May 2022, (including forty-nine proposals and three hundred and twenty-six concrete measures), the European Parliament called for the a Convention for the Revision of the Treaties. On 25 October 2023, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) suggested relaunching this call, with proposals for revision in a report due to be put to the vote at the plenary session of 20 to 23 November. A Franco-German Working Group published its recommendations on the same subject in September 2023. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, seemed to support, or at least not rule out, the idea of a Convention in her "State of the Union" speeches in September 2022 and 2023. In a Manifesto dated 4 October 2023 some thirty leading figures from the world of European politics and academia advocated "progressive and pragmatic" federalism for the European Union.

The idea of revising the Treaties is gradually gaining ground in view of a possible further enlargement of the European Union in the medium term. Depending on the state of political resolve[2], this is expected to take place against a turbulent geopolitical backdrop, marked by the Ukrainian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts and threats to the European Union's direct neighbourhood. The dilemma between deepening and widening has resurfaced, to be addressed by an articulated combination of the two. This means preventing enlargement before the European Union has been strengthened by changes to the way it operates, thereby avoiding obstructions to decision-making.

Although the current geopolitical situation is pushing for enlargement, the need to reform the European Union ought already have been considered in much more neutral terms. For several years now, states such as China and India have been gaining in power on the international stage, competing with the United States and potentially relegating the European Union to a secondary position in the world, both economically and politically. The challenges of climate change, demographics and immigration only exacerbate this risk. The EU needs to be strengthened, independently of and before any idea of enlargement. The prospect of enlargement only serves to accelerate the process, as the catalyst of reform that sets it in it motion.

Significant steps without treaty revision?

Admittedly, the European Union has successfully tackled the various challenges of the last decade (financial crisis, Covid pandemic, war in Ukraine). The intergovernmental creation of the European Stability Mechanism (EMS) and the Fiscal Compact, joint purchasing of vaccines, gas and even weapons[3], then sanctions against the assailant country[4] are emblematic of its ability to respond to unprecedented situations, as are the new initiatives to borrow on the markets to finance the recovery (NextGenerationEU[5]) and support employment, as well as promoting the production of micro-conductors and electrical batteries[6]. These are all initiatives designed to ensure "European sovereignty" in the face of other world powers[7], which were taken following an innovative application of the provisions of the treaties (for example articles 122[8] and 114[9] TFEU) and, where necessary, using the intergovernmental method (example of the ESM). Once has occurred, the latter is traditionally followed by a switch to the "Community" method, involving a supranational initiative by the Commission and decisions taken by qualified majority voting.... 

 more at Fondation Robert Schuman

© Fondation Robert Schuman