The State of the European Union. The European states facing the reforms of the Union

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The “future of Europe,” as the political, not
legal, expression it is, can have multiple mean-
ings. Here we refer above all to the meaning
derived from the main texts to have emerged in
2017 from the European Parliament, the
European Commission and, particularly, since
we are talking about states, from the European
Council.
The limited value of the debate among the
states
After Brexit, the debate on the future of Europe
in the European Council began in March 2017,
against the backdrop of the celebration of the
60th anniversary of the European Communities.
The European Council is likely to take the first
decisions arising from that debate now, in 2018.
The Parliament, the Commission and the
European Council approached the debate in dif-
ferent ways. Consequently, the political agen-
das of the European Commission and the
European Council (lately called the Leaders’
Agenda) are different.
The Parliament was the first to speak, with
an overall long-term view that inspired the
adoption of two related resolutions in 2017:
one on the shape of the Union (institutional
matters, governance)1 and another on its poli-
cies (particularly economic and monetary policy,
the single market, budget policy, social policy
and the Union’s external action)2.
The two resolutions also had something to
say about two principal questions, namely, who
should take part in the debate and how to take
the relevant decisions. Since the Parliament did
not exclude a new reform of the treaties, in one
of those resolutions it proposed that the debate
on the future of Europe should take place with-
1 European Parliament resolution of 16 February 2017
on possible evolutions of and adjustments to the current
institutional set-up of the European Union. Available at:
2 European Parliament resolution of 16 February 2017
on improving the functioning of the European Union
building on the potential of the Lisbon Treaty . Available at:
The states on the future
of Europe
José Candela and Carlos Carnero