European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said that the EU Treaty must be renewed and the EU institutions need more power on Member States in order to fight the crisis. Speaking Saturday at The Hague, during a meeting of the Constitutional Court judges organized by Yale University, he called for a “European renewal” and a “jump” for further integration.
“We are in a situation where we need greater unity and coherence among our policies and greater harmonization of laws… We need greater institutional integration. We need to strengthen a transnational discipline which, by shared sovereignty, guarantees the protection of our citizens,” he said. “The current crisis has highlighted the limits of individual actions taken by national states. Europe and Treaty principles need to be renewed.”
Barroso noted that the advancing of political union must be accompanied by “appropriate mechanisms of accountability” for Brussels. But he blamed the financial mess of EU on the member states’ waste. “If a Member State does not follow the fundamental principles on which all agree, then we face a crisis of credibility,” he said.
“Although the immediate causes of the crisis currently affecting the European Union are indeed financial and economic, they are also at a level closer to fundamentals, the product of a crisis of values and non-compliance,” he added. His comments coincide with the beginning of a new period of political activity in Europe after a break due to summer holidays.
The speech also comes a time when Barroso and other senior EU officials are in charge of drawing up proposals for further integration, which could lead to launching a debate on amending the EU treaty in December, an issue likely to born disputes, as many European capitals are afraid to open Pandora’s box of reforms.
Commission’s press office has only published certain parts of Barroso’s speech, as the Hague meeting was taking place behind closed doors. A Barroso’s spokesman said Monday for the EUobserver that the head of Commission asked his staff “to not interpret” his comments, in that he supports or not the EU Treaty change.
He added that the rest of Barroso’s speech focused primarily on constitutional theory and the Head of the Commission will provide more detail about his ideas on the reform of the EU in a speech on “state of the union” on September 12.
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