Eurocrats are preparing an extensive overhaul of the EU’s existing internal rules, aiming to modify its entire decision-making structure by 2030. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen presented the comprehensive reforms as the ‘technical’ process necessary to accommodate a European Union with at least 30 member states. ‘Reform,’ of course, is simply Brussels-speak for more centralized federal control, removing individual member states’ right to veto, and imposing EU taxes.
The political intertwining of enlargement and reform is not incidental. It is designed to incentivize countries supportive of enlargement but hesitant about reform—notably the Nordics and Baltics—to actively endorse EU reforms. Ultimately, the EU Commission will deliberately present these reforms as a moral issue: rejecting centralization equals rejecting enlargement—which amounts to nothing less than betraying Ukraine and siding with Russia.
The ambitious plan was discussed by von der Leyen while she was addressing the European Parliament’s plenary on Wednesday, January 17th. She promised to deliver a comprehensive blueprint for the EU reforms next month, ahead of the next European Council Summit on February 1st. Modernization, she claims, is deemed necessary for the impending EU enlargement to include Ukraine, Moldova, and several Balkan countries. Naturally, von der Leyen made no mention of how it will centralize federal power.
Several member states have been eagerly awaiting the Commission’s concrete proposals to kickstart the more substantive discussion on the matter.
Among others, Germany, France, and Portugal have been the most vocal supporters of reforming the EU’s inner dynamics, even if that would ultimately mean less power for the individual member states.
Von der Leyen noted that the Commission formulated its proposals for building the future EU while heavily relying on the input it received from the European Parliament. “This House has already put forward bold ideas for a reform of our treaties,” she said, without revealing any further details.
Recently the European Parliament adopted several reports, endorsing a wide range of proposals that would explicitly strengthen Brussels while weakening member states’ sovereignty. These include restricting the Council’s legislative powers, scrapping the rotating presidency and members’ veto power, creating an EU citizenship, and introducing European referenda, as well as transferring ten concrete policy areas (including climate, public health, border control, and defense policy) to Brussels’ auspices.
Reacting to one of the most outrageous reports submitted by the notoriously federalist ‘Verhofstadt Group,’ Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski described the proposals as the creation of a European “superstate on the ruins of nation-states:”
The public is not supposed to notice that a putsch is about to take place, that the European Union as a community of sovereign states is being abolished and a superstate is being created without any consent of the people, … where a political oligarchy will rule unaccountably and escape the democratic control of citizens.
Insiders suggest that the Commission’s forthcoming proposals are likely to include a step-by-step strategic roadmap that would intricately link each reform measure with a corresponding enlargement step. The overarching goal is to complete these reforms by the time Ukraine and the others officially join the EU, for which no official deadline has been set by mainstream Eurocrats who would like to see it happen by 2030.
Adding a layer of complexity to the reform agenda, officials in Paris and Berlin have underscored the necessity of addressing the financing of Union programs and the repayment of EU debt in the future as well. The economic disparity between current EU members and the much poorer newcomers—particularly Ukraine with an estimated GDP per capita of €4,100—poses a significant challenge.
That’s why the Commission’s proposals will likely include a set of measures to acquire its “own resources,” primarily in the form of EU taxes. Critics have warned these could easily lead to the fragmentation of the European economy, as well as accelerated centralization and further hijacked competencies.
Put simply, the proposed EU reforms can only go in the direction of deeper integration and the federalist end goal. Europeans, however, will have one more say on the matter in June: let us hope the Eurocrats will take notice.
