What happens to the amendments to the Treaties?

• The European Parliament is working on a package of 267 amendments to the EU Treaties, which importantly strengthen the competences of the Commission, the Council and another EU institutions and take distant the right of veto in most cases

• If the European Parliament adopts them, they will inactive should be accepted by all associate States

• Unanimous approval of the current proposals for treaty amendments is presently unlikely, given the public opposition of 13 countries

• To block treaty changes, even 1 associate State's opposition is sufficient. In the case of Poland, the agreement to amend the treaties would require a majority of 2/3 votes in both chambers of parliament.

What MEPs would like to change in EU treaties

On 25 October this year, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament (AFCO) adopted a study on a draft resolution of the European Parliament proposing amendments to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The resolution provides for 267 amendments to the EU Treaties. The scope of the amendments is highly wide, including the extension of the EU's competence in the fields of climate policy, energy, security, economy or social policy, the removal of veto rights in most cases and the replacement of it by qualified majority, the strengthening of the function of the Court of Justice of the EU, the revision of the EU's rules on abroad and safety policy and many others (see more broadly: Ordo Iuris comment on this topic).

What is the context of the proposed changes

The proposals of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs form part of the Spring 2022 debate on a deep improvement of the European Union aimed at a serious simplification in the right of veto of the associate States, broadening the legislative powers of the EU institutions and strengthening the European Commission. The French president Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, have publically advocated this reform.

Further steps in the revision procedure of the Treaties

The decision of the AFCO Committee is not yet formal initiating the procedure for amending the Treaties. The Committee as an auxiliary body of the European Parliament has no right of legislative initiative. The amendments proposed by the Committee will shortly be discussed in the plenary session of the European Parliament. Until then, the motion for a resolution will be able to change.

Only erstwhile the European Parliament determines the final content of the amendments and adopts them in the form of a resolution will the average revision procedure of the Treaties laid down in Article 48(2) to (5) of the Treaty on European Union be formally initiated. However, the very adoption of the resolution by the European Parliament is highly likely, given that it has been prepared by MEPs of the most many parliamentary factions, which together have an absolute majority (European People's Party, Socialists and Democrats, "Renew Europe" and the Greens).

The second phase of the revision procedure will be to pass on the EP resolution to the Council of the European Union (made up of the applicable ministers of the individual associate States). The EU Council will forward this resolution to the European Council (composed of Heads of State or Government) and notify national parliaments.

The 3rd phase of the procedure will be the decision taken by the European Council by simple majority to convene a convention composed of representatives of national parliaments, Heads of State and Government, the European Parliament and the European Commission.

If the European Council calls for a convention, it will gotta make a preliminary assessment of the substantive amendments tabled by the European Parliament and then – by consensus, adopt a advice for an intergovernmental conference. The request for consensus means that the decision to adopt the advice should be adopted by common agreement of all States, without voting. Alternatively, the European Council may make specified a advice on its own without convening the Convention, but must get the consent of the European Parliament.

The president of the EU Council then convenes an intergovernmental conference. This is the most crucial step in the revision procedure. It is then that representatives of the governments of the associate States discuss and make the final content of the Treaty amendments which can only be adopted by consensus. At the end of this phase, the legal services of the EU Council and the Commission shall make legislative drafting of the amendments in the form of revision treaties. After that, no changes in the content of the amendments can be made.

The final phase of the procedure is the ratification of the fresh treaties by all Member States in accordance with their constitutional requirements. In the case of Poland, ratification of specified treaties could be carried out by the president of the Republic of Poland after obtaining the prior approval of the parliament. As the proposed amendments would supply for a crucial extension of the competences of the European Union, specified consent would should be expressed separately by the Sejm and the Senate, in any case by a 2/3 majority (Article 90(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland). Alternatively, specified ratification could be authorised through a referendum (Article 90(3) of the Constitution).

Opportunities to block Treaty changes

It follows that the revision of the EU treaties is impossible without the approval of all associate States. 1 country would be able to block any changes at the stage:

1) make a advice to the Intergovernmental Conference by the Convention;

2) adoption of the final version of the amendments by the intergovernmental conference;

3) ratification of the final version of the revision treaties.

Future scenarios

In the current political situation, the adoption of the Treaty amendments as proposed by the AFCO Committee seems impossible. In common a message of 22 May 2022. in connection with the finalisation of the Conference on the Future of Europe, 13 representatives of the governments of the associate States expressed their scepticism openly, recognising the proposals to amend the Treaties as "early" (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden). In this context, even the earlier phase of the procedure is called into question, in which the European Council decides to convene the Convention by a simple majority (14/27).

The aim of the initiative so seems to be to introduce only any of them, which can be implemented in the current political situation and would consequence in the creation of a superstate with its capital in Brussels. At the same time, the rejection of the others will enable governments of countries whose nations are opposed to centralising power outside the country to build the image of winners.

However, if all the governments of the associate States had yet reached agreement on the revision of the Treaties, they would inactive be possible to block them at the ratification stage, which in any countries requires a parliamentary majority agreement with the opposition. specified a country is Poland, where, as has already been mentioned, ratification of an global agreement transferring competence to an global organisation is made by decision of the president of the Republic of Poland, after obtaining the consent of 2/3 of the Sejm (307 votes at full attendance) and 2/3 of the legislature (67 votes at full attendance). Even if the current parliamentary majority (PO, PSL, Poland 2050, Left) were curious in supporting the AFCO Committee's proposal, it does not have a adequate majority in any of the chambers for effective consent to ratification (it would deficiency 59 Members in the Sejm and 1 Senator in the Senate). Even if Parliament agreed, the president of the Republic of Poland could inactive veto or challenge it to the Constitutional Court, or simply refuse ratification.

It would be easier for the parliamentary majority to get approval for ratification in the form of a referendum, in which the approval of the majority of citizens expressed with over 50% attendance would suffice.

== sync, corrected by elderman ==