“CoFoE” concludes amidst ECR walkout

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BrusselsReport.eu
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Copyright: European Parliament, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Over the weekend, the final conference plenary of the so-called «Conference on the Future of Europe», or “COFOE”, was marked by the walk-out of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, with Italian ECR MEP Carlo Fidanza calling it a “farce”, arguing that “we unfortunately do not recognize it to have any legitimacy” as “the citizens selected to participate represent only a tiny fraction of the 450 million European citizens, and in the final documents their opinion has been largely replaced by a package prepared by certain political groups that are more interested in changing the treaties to impose their hyper-federalist agenda”. An ECR press release pointed out that “research shows that citizens who are in favour of a more centralised Union were much more likely to accept an invitation to participate in the citizens’ panels of the Conference than those more skeptical.”

The plenary decided to approve more than 300 proposals, which will now be taken up by the conference’s “executive board”, which is supposed to provide its final reports to the Presidents of the European Parliament, European Commission and European Council on the 9th of May.

The proposals include scrapping national vetoes, providing the European Parliament with the power to propose legislation, more money for climate change policy, the creation of the EU’s own “joint armed forces” as well as transnational voting lists (separately, the latter was also just supported by a majority of MEPs, even if this still needs the approval of EU member states).

“Radical overhaul of the EU”

German green MEP Niklas Nienaß responded: “The federal state of Europe will become reality!, adding “This will shape the world forever!”. Belgian Renew MEP Guy Verhofstadt, one of the co-Chairs of the executive board of the CoFoE, summed it up by tweeting: “Conference on the Future of Europe approves radical overhaul of the EU”.

Despite the far reaching nature of these proposals, which require EU Treaty change, speakers from five political groups representing a broad majority (EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA, and The Left) agreed that the draft proposals are a major political achievement. MEPs will also seek to formally initiate amending the EU Treaties.

However, the proposals were openly rejected by MEPs representing the ID and ECR groups.

Swedish ECR MEP Charlie Weimers stated:

“Walking out of this farce was the only right move. (…) Out of touch elites are taking the EU project down the wrong road and undermining democracy. We need to repatriate powers to national level where there is a real connection between voters and decision makers. This was not up for discussion.”

German AFD MEP Gunnar Beck (ID Group) remarked:

“The Conference on the Future of Europe is recommending the abolition of the national veto, more migration and joint EU armed forces. It would be an EU federal state. Thanks to Brexit, the UK is now escaping this madness.»

Also German magazine Der Spiegel issued a critical note:

“Some suggestions seem rather bizarre. The Council of the EU is to be called the Senate of the EU in the future, and instead of the EU Commission, it is to be referred to as the “EU Executive Commission””

Dutch Opinion polling finds majority opposition against COFOE plans in the Netherlands

Meanwhile, an opinion poll by I&O, commissioned by Dutch political party JA21 (ECR) shows that there is hardly any support for the results coming out of “COFOE”, as the conference has come to be known.

The conclusions by I&O include the following findings:

“- Over 63% of the Dutch population think that the EU should not be able to collect taxes directly.

– Only 21% are in favour of further transferring national powers to the European Union, while no less than 43% are opposed to this.

– 55% of the Dutch population finds that the Netherlands itself should be able to determine from which countries it admits asylum seekers from outside the EU, only 23% finds that the EU should be able to determine this.

– 52% do not want the Netherlands to be obliged to financially assist EU member states with an excessive national debt as (…) only a tiny part, 17%, supports this.”

Addressing the findings, Dutch JA21 MEP Michiel Hoogeveen comments:

“The Conference on the Future of Europe is a failed experiment. Research by I&O commissioned by JA21 shows that there is hardly any support for the results. “Citizens have been used to the ideas of politicians”:

 

 

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