EU Parliament urges rewrite of Brussels' treaties
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The European Parliament, following a major public consultation, is pushing for the European Union to overhaul parts of the treaties it has signed in a way to make the bloc better.
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The European Parliament in session in Strasbourg, France
The European Parliament called Wednesday for the EU to rewrite its underpinning treaties at the request of a group of European citizens who took part in a major public consultation on the matter.
A majority of European Parliament Members voted in favor of an overhaul of parts of treaties signed by the bloc in a bid to enhance the EU's "democratic appeal".
The resolution voted upon was merely advisory, as any changes would have to be agreed upon unanimously by the bloc's 27 nations after it gains approval by parliaments, courts, and national referendums - in some cases.
Guy Verhofstadt, an MEP and former Belgian prime minister who chaired the citizen Conference on the Future of Europe, said the vote was an "ambitious implementation" of what had been called for.
BREAKING:
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) May 4, 2022
Overwhelming majority of European Parliament launches procedure to change the treaties
Ambitious implementation of what citizens in the Conference on Future of Europe proposed calls for a Convention.
Health, energy, defence, democracy… Another EU is possible !✊🏻🇪🇺
The two-year consultation, which has just ended, involved 800 EU citizens selected randomly with gender, age, education, and socioeconomic levels are taken into account, looking at the means by which the bloc functions and what it could enhance.
The consultation resulted in 325 proposals that would require an extensive overhaul of the EU's means of taking policy stances and decisions.
This overhaul includes abandoning the system that requires a consensus from the bloc's 27 nations on sensitive topics, such as taxation, social security, foreign policy, and the accession of new members.
Another issue is the empowerment of the European Parliament to perpetuate legislative proposals itself instead of weighing initiatives made by the European Commission or the European Council, the body that represents member states.
This comes a day after Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke before European lawmakers in Strasbourg and proposed that the EU abandon the unanimity requirement toward "pragmatic federalism" on resolutions that affect security, economy, and energy for a more effective decision-making mechanism.
"We need to move forward from the principle of unanimity, which leads to a logic of intergovernmental decisions, to decisions taken on the basis of qualified majority," he told Parliament.
