The State of the European Union 2017

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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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Towards a European Convention?
The European Parliament is currently discussing
a draft Resolution that seeks the calling of a
Convention in 2017 to reform the treaties.9
There are, perhaps, as many arguments in
favour of calling a Convention as there are
against it.
Among the former is that only with the de-
liberation and decision of the greatest number
of participants possible can we truly overcome
the crises that affect us all. From that point of
view, in the history of European integration, a
Convention has been and always will be a use-
ful tool for the advancement of integration,
apart from its results. After years of authoritar-
ian “integration” (the Heads of State and
Government, particularly of the chief European
power, were virtually the exclusive originators of
the decisions that imposed austerity, often to
the detriment of the “community method”), it
may be the only way, in the medium and long
term, of avoiding the progression of the current
decline of the Union.
One might think that had the decisions tak-
en, for example, on the issue of the Greek crisis
or in the refugee crisis been effective (which re-
mains to be seen), this authoritarian integration
would be at least partially justified. Yet it can
never be denied that greater participation from
those affected by the decisions in the process of
making them would have given them greater
legitimacy.
However, to tackle a reform of the treaties cor-
rectly, we must avoid urgency or improvisation,
9See Verhofstadt, G.: Possible evolutions and adjustments
of the current institutional set up of the European Union,
2016 (draft Resolution of the European Parliament, cur-
rently pending a first reading in the Parliament). Available
at:
dure.do?lang=fr&reference=2014/2248(INI)
mixing the negotiation of the United Kingdom’s
withdrawal with the pursuit of integration and
putting national electoral interests before
European political union (elections in several
member states in 2017).
As we said, the negotiations with the United
Kingdom will last at least the two years laid
down in Article 50 of the Treaty on European
Union. In our view, it would be a good idea for
the European Council to separate the manage-
ment of the negotiations with the United
Kingdom from the handling of the rest of the
priority matters in progress so that there is no
mutual negative influence or inefficiency in ei-
ther process.
Moreover, a reform of the treaties requires
prior education of those who in most States (in
some member states, European treaties are not
ratified by referendum but by Parliament) are
going to have the last word on approving it,
that is to say, the citizens. We must give time to
the institutions of the Union, to the national ad-
ministrations and European civil society to carry
out that pedagogical work and make it politi-
cally profitable, preparing the debate well.
Among the underlying issues is the fact that
recent surveys show that there is a certain pref-
erence among European public opinion for an
increase in actual European legislation (employ-
ment, migration, security) over formal legisla-
tion (reinforcing democracy).10
In any case, the symbolic charge and political
returns of declaring the will to stage a wide-
ranging political debate on political union stems
from the fact that if the Union gets ahead by
taking the initiative, the anti-European and
10 See Eurobarometer 2016on the “future of Europe” in: http://
ec.europa.eu/COMMFrontOffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/
Survey/getSurveyDetail/yearFrom/1974/yearTo/2016/sur
veyKy/2131