Video 1 of the project ‘Next Europe’
The Spinelli Group presented the book ‘Europe is back’ on November 5, 2013, at Bozar in Brussels. This is a detailed proposal for ‘A fundamental law for the European Union’. The authors – members of the European Parliament – want a new Treaty for the EU, with negotiations starting after the European elections of May 2014.
Replacing the existing treaties, ‘Europe back’ takes a major step towards a federal union. It turns the European Commission into a democratic constitutional government, in which the Commission initiates laws which are then enacted jointly by the Council, representing the states, and the European Parliament, representing the citizens. You can check the main elements of the proposal here.
Many reasons for this drastic and controversial change, according to the Spinelli Group: the EU’s current executive authority is dispersed and democratic accountability weak. Expedient measures needed to address the financial and economic crisis have stretched the present EU treaties close to their limits. The Union’s system of governance must be reformed if it is to deliver much needed public goods at home and decisive leadership abroad. National parties and parliaments are failing to embrace the European dimension of politics.
In this first video of the project ‘Next Europe’, MEPs Andrew Duff, Jo Leinen, Guy Verhofstadt, and Maroš Šefčovič Vice-president and commissioner for inter-institutional relations and administration, will give their views on the proposals.
Jo Leinen said: ‘The next European Parliament may be the most anti-European we have seen. That could be a catastrophe. We want to provoke a debate with this treaty and set a contrapoint with a Front Europeen.’ His colleague Guy Verhofstadt added: ‘Our current system doesn’t work. Europe has a political crisis, not an economic one.’