After five years of a “Geopolitical Commission” that has introduced a wealth of new legislation, the EU must adapt and prepare for an era of enforcement and compliance. Here are five innovative ideas proposed by think tanks regarding the new mandate.
In the last legislature there were more than 660 initiatives from the EU executive and unprecedented responses to the COVID-19 pandemica energy crisis it is included a war on its borders.
The EU demonstrated that, despite its complex governance, where there is political will there is a way, and thus the bloc found the tools and mechanisms to jointly buy vaccines y provide Ukraine with all financial aidmilitary and human that he could.
But the outlook for the next five years will require the management of ecological and digital transitions -more than a lot of legislation- and what worked in the past may not work in the future.
“It would be naïve to assume that the EU and its members will always do what is necessary when the pressure is so high that the Union has no choice but to go the extra mile to prevent the situation from getting out of control,” according to a recent analysis by the think tank European Policy Center (EPC).
The EPC and other think tanks are studying how to reflect the change in perspective and demands in the institutional changes in Brusselsespecially in this election year.
To meet the challenges of the future and make the EU more resilient to current and future crises, the bloc must act more quickly together, find ways to finance its needs, improve coordination between its institutions and provide strong leadershipthe researchers argue – especially in a context of increasing polarization, security threats and more countries eagerly knocking on Europe’s door to join the club of 27.
‘Euronews’ has read some political debate papers and spoken to EU researchers to offer you a list of five ideas on how the block can improve its internal workings to fulfill his political promises.
1. A more executive Commission
The growing role of the EU in policy areas for which Member States are primarily responsible, such as health, foreign policy and security, requires a higher degree of executive skill and capacityaccording to the CPE analysis.
The European Commission was conceived more than 60 years ago as a strategic institution in charge of propose and develop plans in line with the expectations of Member States and to apply these strategies through various budgetary and regulatory instruments, Jean-Louis De Brouwer, director of the European Affairs program at the Egmont Institute, explained to ‘Euronews’. “The problem is that the Commission is not yet prepared to carry out these executive functions,” added De Brouwer.
Despite having acquired new executive skills in recent years, especially in the field of technologyMember States remain reluctant to give the Commission additional resources to fully and effectively implement all new legislation.
CEPS analyst Ursula Pachl says a new commissioner for compliance and enforcement would make a lot of sense to maintain the EU’s position as a global regulatory power.
The President of the Commission is now the only member of the College of Commissioners with powers to coordinate and ensure compliance with EU legislationPachl maintains. “This system now seems outdated and too limited in scope, given the enormous challenges ahead,” he writes.
Heather Grabbe, Bruegel’s senior researcher, argues that the upcoming Commission should be impartial and not political, and focus on ensuring that EU law is correctly applied. “It’s necessary that the Commission has much stronger powers to be the guardian of the rule of law treaties,” says Grabbe.
2. Strong and coordinated leadership
In recent years, it is no secret that the head of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (Germany/EPP), and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel (Belgium/Renewal), have not maintained the best relations.
Their confrontations and personal rivalries, which culminated in the so-called ‘sofagate‘, led to less cooperation between both institutions and did not always present the EU as a united voice.
“We will need some leadership by the new team that will exist when the Commission is completed, [y] Some efforts will have to be made to improve this governance [de la UE]”De Brouwer said.
He former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa He will be the next President of the European Council from October, but von der Leyen still needs the approval of the European Parliament to return to his old position for a new term.
“It will be especially significant that the presidents of the European Council and the Commission push in the same direction“, point out the EPC analysts. “Both must understand that the power of the Commission increases depending on the strength of the European Council and vice versa.”
ADVERTISING3. Set clear strategic objectives
Bruegel has just published a memo addressed to the next leaders of the EU institutions, in which his researchers point out that not all legislation has been good in the last five yearsand that progress has been slow or non-existent in important areas such as the capital markets union.
The researchers also claim that the Commission’s response to the decline in EU competitiveness has been unilateral, by failing to adopt key legislation to deepen the single market, and that the Council has failed to agree on new own resources to help repay the next generation of EU loans. “I think that a greater consensus on the areas in which the EU needs to act more would be the most valuable thing that could be agreed at this time,” Grabbe told ‘Euronews’.
The more aligned the objectives are by EU leaders on the Strategic Agenda for the next five years and the Commission’s roadmap, betterand the implementation of the bloc’s key objectives should be supported by strategic working groups, the CPE recommends.
A working group could be institutionally anchored in the Commission and led by an experienced political figure focusing on a specific priority, such as the EU defense and security industry. “However, to be effective, they would need to have real coordination powers and be integrated into the EU system,” the EPC analysts write.
4. Reform EU decision-making
According to researchers, much can be done without reforming the Treaties. “The current political context practically makes impossible to carry out the kind of large-scale institutional reform based on the treaties that we have had in the past,” the Bruegel researcher told ‘Euronews’, arguing that it is not realistic with the current divisions between member states and the different vision that the popular forces of the radical right have of what the EU.
ADVERTISINGUpscaling, for example, is extremely complicated due to the number of vetoes that each state has member in the process, which have become increasingly elaborate over time, Grabbe said, adding that they don’t have to be so ornate.
“The EU should be innovative when preparing for the next wave of enlargement, including Ukraine’s accession. “The possibility of staggered accession should be seriously considered,” says Bruegel’s note.
Another key aspect will be how to structure -o restructure- the internal functioning of the Commissionso that there is better coordination between the different political areas and so that each EU commissioner (there is one per country) has an important portfolio.
“The need for organizing curatorial groups makes sense, but everyone should have some type of significant portfolio. That’s the challenge,” says Grabbe.
5. More effective use of the EU budget (and common debt?)
During the election campaign, von der Leyen said she would draw on the experience of the past five years to simplify the EU budget, eliminate redundancies y make it more efficient.
ADVERTISINGIn May, Germany’s center-right Commissioner hinted that she would be willing to cut costly farm subsidies and aid to the poorest regions to prioritize new areas of spending, such as defense.
“Agriculture and cohesion will play a role, without a doubt, but we have to focus on what is most important at the moment,” von der Leyen said during an election debate.
The president of the Commission spoke of the need for new own resources and did not close the door to new joint loans to plug financing gapsan idea supported by leaders such as the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, although the opinion most accepted by member states is inclined to do more with limited resources.
“If we want to literally put our money where our mouth is, we will have to think broadly when it comes time to think about the next generation of financial resources needed for the EU,” De Brouwer stressed.
The director of Egmont believes that much more can be done to simplify existing budgetary instruments and make a increased use of performance-based approach. This means that EU money will only be transferred to Member States if they meet certain targets measuring their reforms and their performance, as was the case with the ‘Next Generation’ Recovery plan.
ADVERTISING“The possibility of increasing the EU budget should also be studied, but only if the current policies that absorb the majority of the community budget (CAP and cohesion) are also reformed,” says Bruegel’s note.
