EU reform: France, Germany confident on reaching agreement this year

France and Germany are confident that a partial institutional reform of the EU will be possible this year, the French and German ministers of state for Europe, Laurence Boone and Anna Lührmann, told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

The two countries are particularly looking into switching from unanimity voting to qualified majority voting in policy areas such as foreign policy or taxation to make the EU more agile before it admits new members to the bloc. The move would already be possible within the existing treaties with the help of the Passerelle clause. 

A Passerelle clause allows legislative procedures to be changed without formally amending treaties.

“That is one option we want to explore to keep our strength as a global actor in EU’s common foreign and security policy,” Lührmann told EURACTIV. 

“Also, in other policy areas, it would be an important signal to use the passerelle clause to switch to qualified majority voting already this year,” she stated, adding that “we are confident to make this happen.”

Her French counterpart Boone emphasised that such a move would be “an important step towards more integration and efficiency.”

While this shift to qualified majority voting would be initially “in a limited, very pragmatic way” to “show that the EU 27 is capable of reforming itself”, there is still more to come afterwards, Lührmann stated. 

Making the EU ready for enlargement

France and Germany are pushing for a larger EU reform before any new member joins the bloc. 

“We all agree that we have to deal with this enlargement round in a different way than we did with the last one and that we have to reform our institutions to be fit for the EU with new member states,” Boone stressed. 

“We cannot have an enlargement without reforming the EU,” she added.

Germany has been particularly outspoken about the need to tie together EU reform and enlargement as the EU has become institutionally ready to absorb new members. 

As there are currently eight candidate countries in the waiting room to join the bloc, Germany fears that without reforms, the EU would lose its capacity to act. 

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“Many experts around Europe have doubts that the current institutional setup of the EU is functional, that we maintain our capacity to act swiftly with an enlarged EU of, one day, more than 30 member states. This is why we have put a high priority on starting this reform debate,” Lührmann explained. 

Boone also stressed that everything would be on the table regarding future reforms. “We should not have any taboos when it comes to reforms,” she said. While Boone is convinced that treaty reform is not an end in itself, she also emphasised that “we can get a lot of interest and enthusiasm for a new enlarged EU, which is also being reformed.”

More countries on board

The initial call to reform the EU last May has been received with mixed signals. In a joint position paper, 13 member states at the time cautioned expectations by opposing any forms of sweeping treaty changes. 

However, according to the two ministers, the general consensus has since shifted. A reform, both within the existing treaties and in a new treaty form, is only possible if all member states agree.

“The idea that we need to make the EU fit for enlargement is gaining more and more traction among member states,” Lührmann observed. 

France and Germany already launched several initiatives in the past year to lay the groundwork for reform. In January, the two countries initiated a Franco-German working group of experts on EU institutional reforms. 

Furthermore, they launched a “Group of Friends on Qualified Majority Voting” in the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy in early May. 

“The EU countries are a lot more adaptable and agile in reacting to the situation than people think,” Boone said. 

While the initial reaction to the Franco-German group of experts was rather hesitant, she added that it triggered a debate among member states.

“I would say that since then, there has been enormous progress on the topic,” the French minister stated. 

Similarly, Lührmann emphasised that the idea is getting traction. 

“Three weeks ago, we invited all our colleagues and the German-French experts for dinner in Brussels to listen to reflections of the experts and to the input provided by Member States to feed in their respective perspective into the process,” Lührmann stated. 

“It was a big success with a lively and extremely enriching debate,” she added. 

Even Poland, which has consistently criticised any kind of EU reform, is increasingly warming up to the idea, Boone said. 

“Poland does not oppose EU reform. They might not have the same view of EU reforms as we may have, but they are not opposing it,” she stressed. 

“We had this discussion with our Polish colleagues already.”

[Edited by Alice Taylor]