The Brief — Time for an EU treaty spring clean

Few topics in European politics are as unsexy as EU treaty reform. Yet two years ago, it was briefly back in fashion. A majority of national governments, including Germany and France, the EU’s engine room, gave their backing for treaty reform. Emmanuel Macron, then still something of a European poster boy, was the main cheerleader.

Fast forward the clock to a year on from Russia’s war in Ukraine – and just over a year away from the next European elections – and whatever momentum to reopen the EU treaties existed before, during, and after the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’ appears to have completely disappeared.

Last September, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said leaders needed to be “serious” about EU reform. Instead, it appears they are entirely serious about doing nothing.

That attitude is understandable but it is also a mistake.

After a flurry of reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, EU reform stalled after the collapse of the Constitutional Treaty and the subsequent Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in 2009.

The required unanimity has led to impasses on EU budget reform, energy, defence, and foreign policy, and the rule of law in particular,

In a paper published this week, Andrew Duff, a former liberal MEP from the UK and one of a handful of experts on EU reform, has set out what he describes as ‘five surgical strikes on the treaties’.

Most notably, these include making it easier to shift away from unanimity to qualified majorities in specific policy areas. He also moots the prospect of introducing a new category of affiliate membership of the EU. That would cater for the likes of Ukraine but also, from the other direction, Hungary, Duff suggested.

“Certain existing member states, notably Hungary, might prefer relegation to a looser engagement with Brussels, short of secession via Article 50, as the Union continues to integrate in the federal direction,” he wrote.

It would essentially amount to “a special relationship” with the EU, said Duff.

The idea deserves serious consideration. Hungary, in particular, has taken on the role once occupied by the UK as a ‘semi-detached’ EU member.

Following the recent statements by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ministers on EU policy, whether on sanctions related to the war in Ukraine or social policy, it is increasingly hard to see why the Fidesz government would want to remain in the EU, except for EU funding.

At the same time, there is a case for having a sort of ‘EU waiting room’ for countries that want to join the bloc but for whom the accession process will be lengthy.

Duff also proposes expanding the EU’s competences, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the EU’s coordinated response on medical equipment and vaccine procurement, to include public health.

Less likely to fly is Duff’s plan to enshrine the principle of a transnational list – something always at the top of a federalist’s wish list – to elect an unspecified number of MEPs. EU leaders have kicked that proposal, again, into the long grass.

There will always be a reason to delay addressing EU reform. However, the engine is labouring and badly needs servicing. If there is little ambition or appetite for major reform then a targeted constitutional convention may be the best way forward.

The Roundup

France’s embattled leader Emmanuel Macron has announced a new large-scale labour reform, hoping to revive his political standing with a new “life-at-work pact” in the wake of a pension reform crisis that angered the nation and marred his second presidential mandate.

As the European Parliament’s published its draft report on the proposal to fight child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the rapporteur shared with EURACTIV his vision about the key aspects of the file.

Thousands of residents fled Sudan’s capital Wednesday (19 April) as fighting between the army and paramilitaries — which has killed around 200 people — raged for a fifth day after a 24-hour truce collapsed.

With its new packaging rules, the EU aims to curtail exponentially-growing waste. But for the food sector, the food packaging proposal has unintended ramifications that have so far stayed under the radar, lawmaker Ulrike Müller warned.

A political deal paving the way for the formal adoption of the Chips Act was struck at a negotiation session between the EU’s main institutions on Tuesday (18 April).

The German government has adopted a proposal for a law that would see new fossil heating installations banned from 2024, following a month-long row over the level of state support and pushback from business-friendly FDP lawmakers.

The latest draft of the EU’s anti-SLAPP directive has significantly watered down by governments and does not go far enough to protect journalists from lawsuits designed to harass and intimidate them, director of Article 19 Europe Sarah Clarke told EURACTIV in an interview.

Don’t forget to check out our Health Brief for a roundup of weekly news on healthcare across Europe.

Look out for…

• Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participates in the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, hosted by the President of the United States Joe Biden, via videoconference.
• Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas receives ICMPD Director Michael Spindelegger. 
• Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič receives Jurgen Rigterink, First Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
• Ylva Johansson
• Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson in Paris, France: meets with the Minister of the Interior of France Gérald Darmanin. 

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald]