Hundreds of citizens barely received their wishes for a future EU before resistance began to form.
After a year, the future EU conference ended on Monday. In addition to the citizens’ forums organized by the EU institutions, several national platforms have developed proposals for EU reform. There were hundreds of wishes, some of which even contradict each other. They range from the promotion of vegetarian food and more high-speed rail routes to the abolition of the principle of unanimity, a right of initiative for the European Parliament and new competences for the EU, for example in healthcare, but also more subsidiarity.
What was the purpose of the EU Future Conference?
The stated aim was to collect suggestions for a reorganization or redesign of the European Union. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of a “common vision” for Europe at the opening of the conference in May 2021. Trusting in the swarm intelligence of the participants, the most creative ideas must be detached from the mass of European political buzzwords in the course of the process. Speaking of process: the organized involvement of citizens in the day-to-day of business in Brussels was the unsaid goal, because the distance between the EU and the everyday lives of European women has been criticized for years – not entirely without justification. In its final report, the scientific advisory body that accompanied the forthcoming conference, made up of four European think tanks (Bertelsmann Foundation, EPC, Mercator Foundation and King Baudouin Foundation), came to the conclusion that the grassroots democratic citizens’ bodies were the ones that part of the enterprise worked better – so these knowledge is not unclouded, because as the consultants had to discover, the fact that citizens are far from the EU is also due to ignorance: even among the participants in the future conference, the will to acquire knowledge of the functioning of the EU in the run-up to the consultations was in decline.
What happens to the results?
European Parliament Vice-President Othmar Karas (ÖVP) is convinced that the “credibility of the results” of this conference lies in its implementation. Therefore, the majority of deputies have already spoken out in favor of holding a convention that deals with the fulfillment of citizens’ wishes and initiates the necessary legal and treaty amendments. For now, the EU Commission is examining all proposals for their legal feasibility and will list the specific steps of the reform where possible. However, expectations shouldn’t be too high. “The Conference of the Future is an exercise in democracy, which also means that not all proposals are implemented individually”, says the head of the European Commission representation in Austria, Martin Selmayr, trying to explain. Ultimately, the EU government and the European Parliament decide this.
Who are the driving forces, who are the brakes?
Not all those who present themselves as a driving force will end up fulfilling this function. It is clear that the majority of MEPs are committed to broadly fulfilling citizens’ wishes. It is not so clear whether most EU government representatives are also involved. They may also end up losing more. For example, if your veto falls in the EU Council and you could be overturned by the majority of your counterparts on fiscal, financial and foreign policy matters in the future. Some already fear for their own leeway. In a joint statement on Monday, 13 governments spoke out against the treaty changes and in favor of maintaining subsidiarity. Resistance also comes from right-wing national parties and governments, which are traditionally skeptical of the EU and have no interest in a stronger community with additional powers.
What does official Austria want?
The Austrian summary was mixed on Monday. According to European Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP), the upcoming conference “did not go as expected” because too much time was spent on procedural issues and too little on “concrete solutions”. The domestic EU reform wish list: In terms of procedure, Austria advocates a single seat in the European Parliament, maintaining the principle of one commissioner per member state and for leading candidates in European elections. Regarding the fight against the creeping dismantling of democracy, Edtstadler called for the rule of law to be anchored in EU treaties. Also not to be missed as Austrian evergreens are the sealing of the EU’s external borders, the acceleration of the accession process in the Western Balkans and the rapid return to the upper limits of national debt (maximum 60 per cent of GDP) and inflation ( less than two percent).
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(“Die Presse”, print edition, May 10, 2022)