On 22 Nov 2023, the European Parliament is expected to approve a report and resolution, initiating the procedure to amend the EU Treaties under Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).
This move is a sequel to the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), a forum criticised for its lack of diversity and open debate, largely amplifying voices supportive of an empowered EU. In place of the open discussion promised in the "Joint Declaration on the Conference", the CoFoE turned into a carefully supervised, top-down jamboree, pretending to form a definitive consensus among European citizens on the direction the EU should take. Procedural manipulations were used to fabricate a so-called demand for changes in the institutional structure of the EU as if it were a grass-roots initiative of citizens. From the very beginning and throughout the process, the pro-federalist majority called the shots. It was not hidden that the aim of the entire project was to create an atmosphere in which the establishment of a convention to amend the Treaties and give more competences over from the Member States to the EU Institutions, such as the European Parliament and the European Commission, would be encouraged. All of this prompted our eventual departure from the conference.
Given that the ensuing process was conducted with scant public visibility in numerous countries, we feel compelled to express our concerns about the product developed by the Parliament's majority group negotiators, Mr Verhofstadt and four German MEPs. The text proposes a radical, revolutionary reform plan designed to irreversibly turn the EU from a community of sovereign nation-states into a centralised, hegemonic, technocratic super state, with a significant democratic deficit. This plan, far exceeding any laudable aim, presents a threat to the EU's functionality and future at large.