Parliaments offered greater EU powers

National parliaments will have the power to ask the European Commission to redraft legislative proposals, under plans for a new treaty to be presented at next week’s EU summit (21-22 June).

The draft text makes an attempt to allay concerns, in particular in the Netherlands, the UK and the Czech Republic, that the EU is stripping national assemblies of their powers. The Netherlands, whose citizens rejected the EU constitution in a referendum in 2005, has requested a greater say for national parliaments over EU decisions. The Dutch government said that national assemblies should be given the right to show a "red card" to Commission proposals, forcing it to withdraw drafts opposed by a majority of member states’ parliaments.

According to an official involved in drafting a new treaty text, broadly based on the constitution, the formula which will be presented next week is more of an "orange card".

The Commission would have to redraft proposals which are opposed by three-quarters of national parliaments. The majority required to force the Commission back to the drafting table could be changed in negotiations at the summit, lowering the threshold to allow fewer parliaments to require this step. But an official close to the talks said: "It must be a strong majority, we cannot allow just a few national parliaments to be able to send the draft back. This could completely block the system."

Plans for a new treaty have been prepared over the last months by Council of Ministers officials working closely with the German presidency. The plans are very detailed and include redrafts of articles and entire parts of the constitution. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor who will host next week’s summit, will enter the negotiations with an almost complete redraft of part I of the constitution, on EU institutions, and detailed indications of how the rest of the text will be changed.

The basic strategy of the plans is to preserve most elements of the rejected constitution while presenting innovations as amendments to the Nice treaty.

An official involved in the talks said that the package was "not pretty at this stage, but it makes sense".

Under the plans, a reference in the constitution to the primacy of EU law over national laws, which was opposed by the UK, is dropped. But a protocol will refer to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 1964 that Community law prevails over national law and has applied this principle ever since.

To address French concerns, the new draft will stress the ‘protective’ benefits of the EU and will have fewer references to competition and the free market than the constitution did. "We delete one reference to competition, from the first part, which was the most visible one, but we leave references in the part dealing with policies," an official said.

To allay Dutch sensitivities, a protocol will stress the importance of services of general economic interest. The constitution’s institutional package remains intact: the double majority system replaces the current voting weights in the Council of Ministers, the size of the Commission is reduced to two-thirds of the number of member states and a permanent president of the European Council replaces the current rotating presidency.

A post of EU foreign minister is created, although officials say that the job title could be changed during negotiations, as the UK and Czech Republic object to a job title they think should be reserved for national governments. As in the constitution, qualified majority voting would be introduced for decisions on energy, except for the energy mix, where national vetoes will still apply. A clause on energy solidarity, under which member states will help each other when they face disruption of supply, will be introduced in the article referring to energy in the constitution (III256). This aims at addressing Polish concerns over security of supply.

Under the version to be brought to the summit, the new draft treaty will give legal force to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which constitutes part II of the constitution, although the UK and the Netherlands oppose this. "We will enter negotiations with a maximal scenario, under which the charter is kept and it explicitly has legal value," an official said. "The minimalist scenario is that we keep a small reference to it in the new treaty, copy and paste it in a protocol, with the effect that it implicitly has legal force. Between these, there are some intermediary scenarios, with different wordings."

The plans also give the EU legal personality and do away with the ‘pillars’, under which there is different decision-making for justice and home affairs and foreign policy, from the internal market, although the UK will oppose this.

A diplomat involved in preparing the talks said: "Merkel will start negotiations very well prepared. She has alternative scenarios with different wording to keep disputed elements in a new text in an implicit form. The aim is not to leave the Council building on Friday or Saturday (22-23 June) without an agreement on the whole treaty."

National parliaments will have the power to ask the European Commission to redraft legislative proposals, under plans for a new treaty to be presented at next week’s EU summit (21-22 June).