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1. Institutional and competence reforms
– The best way of limiting the effect of national seesawing in the EU
is to move forward with its political deepening in the federal sense,
starting with restoring the European people as the source of the
EU’s legitimacy, as the Constitution drafted by the Convention stat-
ed, unlike the Treaty of Lisbon, which identifies the States as the
sole bearers of that legitimacy.
– To the same end, political union should be completed through
measures such as increasing the EU’s exclusive and shared compe-
tences to the detriment of the supporting competences, the exten-
sion of qualified majority voting and the ordinary legislative proce-
dure and greater “communitarisation” of the Commission
(implementing after the 2019 elections the article from the Treaty
that provides for a College of Commissioners comprising a number
of members equal to two thirds of the Member States) and of the
European Parliament (amending the legislation to create a Europe-
an “constituency” that elects at least 10 % of MEPs).
– In order for all that to be possible, the role of the European political
parties has to increase and improve, so they can become major play-
ers that, without forgetting national political changes, have the ca-
pacity to act beyond them, primarily serving the community interest.
– It is necessary to institutionalise the Eurogroup, providing it with a
permanent president under the political control of the European
Parliament. In other words, a true Eurozone government.
Recommendations
European Affairs Council of the Fundación Alternativas*
The European Affair Council of the Fundación Alternativas is composed as follows: Diego
López Garrido (Director), Nicolás Sartorius, Juan Moscoso, Carlos Carnero, Vicente Palacio,
Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez, José Candela, Jesús Ruiz-Huerta, Enrique Ayala, Carlos Closa,
José Manuel Albares, José Luis Escario, María Muñiz, Emilio Ontiveros, María Joao Rodrígues,
Francisco Aldecoa, Soledad Gallego, Irune Aguirrezábal, Josep Borrell, Doménec Ruiz and
Xavier Vidal-Folch. Permanent guests at meetings of the Council are Michale Ehrke, Delegate
to Spain of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and María Pallares, programme coordinator, also of
the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.