Corbett, R. (2014) “A common sense guide to EU reform“, Future Europe – Signposts from the European Elections, Europe’s World Journal, 09 Οκτωβρίου.
It is hard to find a politician in any EU country these days who doesn’t call for ‘reform’. But as to what those reforms should be, opinions differ widely. And while the anti-system parties, wanting either to leave or destroy the Union are the loudest, it will be the mainstream parties and governments that will have to deliver.
Reform in the European context is an ongoing process, not a one-off event to be initiated, negotiated and completed within a self-proclaimed deadline. Rather, the whole point of the EU is to be a non-stop negotiating forum, year in year out, on all the subjects where our interdependence makes it necessary to work together as neighbours. Nowadays, these negotiations tend to be more about amending, updating, improving or repealing existing policies and legislation, rather than embarking on new fields of co-operation (with the caveat that more might be needed within the eurozone for countries sharing the common currency).
“Nowadays, negotiations tend to be more about amending, updating, improving or repealing existing policies and legislation, rather than embarking on new fields of co-operation”
Anyway, the European Union now broadly has the field of competence that most member states agree on. So the likelihood of European countries deciding to transfer new fields of responsibility up to the European level, or to remove them is actually quite small, given that treaty change would require unanimous agreement and parliamentary ratification. The real arguments are more about how the EU should exercise the competences it has, and the policy choices it should make within its existing remit.
Σχετικές αναρτήσεις:
- Vogel, L. (2014) “Structural reforms at the zero bound“, European Economy – Economic Papers. Νο. 537, European Commission Publications, Νοέμβριος 2014: Βρυξέλλες.
- Theodoropoulou, S. (2014) “Structural Reforms Will Not Mitigate The Risk Of Deflation In Europe“, Social Europe Journal, 10 Νοεμβρίου.
- “EU migration – a deliverable proposal for reform“, Open Europe Blog, 03 Νοεμβρίου 2014.