The authors of the resolution called on the Council of the EU to “immediately and without too much discussion” submit the conclusions of this report for the consideration of the leaders of the member states.
The European Parliament adopted on Wednesday, November 22, a resolution containing proposals to amend the EU’s main treaties, in particular to introduce the principle of “qualified majority” when making decisions within the European Union, in instead of observing the current principle of consensus. . The resolution was adopted with a slight majority of votes: 291 representatives voted in favor, 274 voted against, and 44 European politicians abstained, Ukrinform reports.
The text of the adopted document states that the current version of the EU treaties entered into force on December 1, 2009, since then the EU has faced unprecedented challenges and crises, such as, in particular, the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine. The representatives emphasized that changes to the EU’s main treaties are necessary to maintain the functioning of the European Union.
The representatives called on the Council of the EU to “immediately and without too much thought” submit the conclusions of this report to the heads of state and government of the member states, and the European Council itself to form a convention in accordance with the procedure for amending the main provisions of the current Agreement with the EU, as provided for in Article 48 of this document.
The representatives in the resolution stated that some countries in the Western Balkans region are already at different stages of the process of joining the EU. They also welcomed the granting of candidate country status for Ukraine and Moldova, which took place on June 23, 2022.
The essence of the proposed clarifications to the EU treaties is the introduction of a new decision-making mechanism, in particular, the change of the rule of consensus when voting in member countries to the principle of a qualified majority. It was also proposed to establish a mechanism for a European referendum on the most important actions of the European Union or its policies.
According to the proposal, submitted to EU leaders, qualified majority decision-making should reach issues of the EU’s common foreign policy, security policy and defense policy, including decisions on the application of sanctions, internal procedures in the EU enlargement process, joint border management and other foreign policy issues.
The report also recommends strengthening the use of qualified majority voting when deciding on budgetary issues, in particular decisions on changes to the tax system or in the process of processing the EU’s five-year multiannual budget.
During the parliamentary hearings at the discussion stage of this document, one of its authors, a member of the political group Renewing Europe, deputy Guy Verhofstadt explained what the concept of “qualified majority” means – it is the votes of two-thirds of the total number of member countries, representing at least 50 percent of the population of the European Union, subject to the provision of special powers for small EU countries with small populations .
Source: korrespondent
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