The EU needs institutional reform before Ukraine and Moldova can join as new members, the Green MEP Daniel Freund told EURACTIV, as the EU lawmaker outlined the main priorities ahead of the next EU elections in 2024.
“At the last Council, we made Ukraine and Moldova candidate countries, and if there is to be a viable perspective, for those countries joining the EU, we need to reform the Union and make it ready to actually accept those member states and still be in a capacity to act,” said Freund, a German deputy.
Freund believes it is essential to deal with the consequences of the war in Ukraine, accelerate the ecological transition, defend democracy and the rule of law, to grab the opportunity of introducing transnational lists during the Czech presidency and to put at the centre of the electoral debate the voice of European citizens, as a lesson learned during the conference on the future of Europe.
The latter is a transnational deliberative democracy experiment where citizens were involved in EU policymaking, together with national and EU politicians.
Midway through the conference, the war in Ukraine started, and some of the citizens’ demands approved last May mirror their worries about the new geo-political landscape.
On these subjects, citizens recommend becoming energy independent, increasing the speed of the ecological transition, and better equipping schools for emergency situations, such as wars and pandemics.
‘Accelerating’ the green transition
“The war in Ukraine and its consequences will unfortunately continue to be very high on the agenda. We see that inflation has come back to the continent in a way that we have not seen in many decades,” said Freund.
The latter is “to a large degree fossil fuel driven at the moment,” explained the EU lawmaker, adding that the transition towards renewables is not only environmentally friendly but also economically sensible in the long term. “I think that nexus will be high on the agenda,” he points out.
The energy transition can be accelerated because of the war, Freund thinks, instead of slowing down.
“If prices are high, the incentives to switch to heat pumps, electric vehicles, or to put solar cells on your roof are even higher. The social repercussions will be very important as well,” said the MEP.
Irish MEP Ciarán Cuffe, also a member of the Greens/EFA group, also underlined the importance of a just transition.
“We need to ensure we bring everyone on the journey to climate action,” he told EURACTIV.
“We have to carefully listen to the more vulnerable communities, whether it be those who are out of work, whether it be young people who cannot find work in the first instance, whether it be people living in homes that they cannot heat in the winter…” added Cuffe.
Freund also underlined the need to grab the opportunity to approve transnational lists ahead the next EU vote. “We need a deal now, during the Czech presidency, for that still to be able to enter into force for the 2024 elections”.
The European Parliament approved in early May a legislative report to revise the EU electoral law, introducing a system in which voters will have two votes.
In the first, people elect MEPs from their national constituency, while in the second, 28 additional seats will see MEPs elected in an EU-wide constituency.
According to the legislative process, the report has to be voted on by the Council with a unanimous vote, before coming back to the Parliament for approval before going to member states.
Need for treaty change
“I think the European elections will be the election where we decide whether we will actually listen to what citizens have to say and how they want to see the future of the EU,” Freund said.
Some citizen proposals demanded the reform of the EU treaties, such as the abolition of the need for unanimity on foreign policy matters.
Freund said he is “quite optimistic” about the possibility to open the treaties, as more governments hint at supporting opening up the treaties, a marked change from the situation a few years ago.
In early June, the European Parliament formally called for a convention to open the treaties.
According to Article 48 of the treaty, national governments must decide by a simple majority whether they want to open a constitutional convention.
[Edited by Benjamin Fox]
Source: euractiv.com
