What Is at Stake in the Convention for Treaty Reform

Antonio Padoa Schioppa
Emeritus Professor of History of Law at the University of Milan, Italy.
Former President of the Centre for Studies on Federalism

The European Parliament (EP) approved in its session on 22 November a Resolution which calls for the launch of a Convention for the reform of the Treaty of Lisbon, which since 2009 has been the primary source of European Union law. The resolution was ignored by the press with the meritorious exception of Sergio Fabbrini's article in Il Sole on November 26, but it deserves a lot of attention due to its potential significance. We must go back to 1984 to find the only precedent, when the European Parliament approved a proposal (the Spinelli Project) aimed at transforming the Union into a true federation, a proposal which was later abandoned but indirectly generated the Single Act of 1986 and the Treaty of Maastricht of 1992. Now the EP has collected some of the main indications emerged from the Conference on the Future of Europe (COFOE) concluded in 2022, and urged the European Council to convene a Convention to reform the EU according to the procedure established by the Treaty of Lisbon. The EP resolution responds, among other things, to a specific request from hundreds of citizens chosen by sortition who actively participated in the Conference on the Future of Europe.

However, the EP Resolution goes much further. It includes a complex project for the reform of the European Treaties, the result of a preparatory work carried out by a working group appointed by the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the EP, accepted by it with amendments and then submitted to the plenary session on 22 November, following a vote on a large series of additional amendments. The Resolution was approved, albeit with a small majority, at the end of a heated debate. The entire session can be watched online.

The central point of the Resolution lies in eliminating, almost without exception, the veto power, currently possible in important matters falling within the Union's competence, and in its replacement with the qualified majority voting procedure, simultaneously adopting the ordinary legislative procedure of the EU, which requires the co-decision of the Parliament alongside the approval of the Council. Security, common defense, fiscal harmonization, foreign policy, multi-annual budget, new own resources of the Union, even future reforms of the Treaties would thus fall within the framework of the many matters that can already today be decided by qualified majority and co-decision of the European Parliament, in a context that is not only effective but also democratic. It is well known that the veto of even one single government, in matters where it is currently permitted, always has the effect of paralyzing many essential choices. A century-long wisdom has taught that where a common interest, recognized as such by everybody, is at stake (as are all the competences written in the Treaties, and signed by all the EU member states), any assembly - from  condominiums to national governments up to the Conclave – can only escape  paralysis by counting individual assent when there is no common agreement.

Naturally, the Convention, if convened, may accept, modify or reject every single proposal of the Project voted by the EP. And the treaties in force (Article 48 TFEU) then require the double unanimity of Governments and ratifications: the path is certainly very arduous. Just to launch the Convention, the consent of at least fourteen governments of the Union is required; thirteen already announced their approval; Italy did not, yet.

The Convention, if it is launched and concluded, could constitute the institutional culmination of the great undertaking of European integration, that began over seventy years ago. But in any case it takes years to be implemented, with the necessary ratification of all 27 member states. However, the current challenges, internal and external to the Union, are of such gravity, of such magnitude and of such urgency that immediate choices are required, instead of a postponement of years. It should be added that the Project was voted by the European Parliament with a small majority of 291 yes and 274 no. All the Italian parliamentarians of Fratelli d'Italia (the current right-wing party in government) voted against; and so too, surprisingly, many members of the European People's Party. This does not bode well for the Italian Government's approval to the request for a Convention, and yet the Italian-German agreement signed recently by Prime Minister Meloni declares that the two countries share the objective of a “strong, supportive and sovereign” Europe. These are the very aims of the Resolution of last 22 November.

At this point it should be underlined that many crucial choices can - and therefore should - be made even before a reform of the treaties, with the tools already available today, including enhanced  cooperations and other clauses that allow a group of states to proceed without the need of everyone's consent. This path is certainly not new. The European currency, Schengen, and social cohesion policies were born like this, with a reduced geometry, leaving some member states out by their own choice. To proceed in such directions, huge resources will be needed in the coming years, which can only be activated at the European level, with common own resources. The historic decisions of July 2020 showed that under the pressure of crises the Union can find the strength to proceed in this direction. Already today there have been steps forward in European defense that were unthinkable before the war in Ukraine; and the same goes for the prospects of investments in common public goods, for clean energy, for Africa, for new technologies and more. The Global Gateway launched in 2021 by the European Commission includes a commitment to a very broad spectrum of interventions, amounting to as many as 300 billion euros on a multi-year basis.

The European election in June 2024 is already largely oriented towards European issues in each of the countries of the Union. The various national political forces, which will group together in the next European Parliament on the basis of similar programs, are all taking a position on this front. The stakes in the June 2024 election are therefore very high. The future fate of the Union, and therefore of European citizens, will largely depend on the composition of the Parliament elected in the new European legislature.