Following a statement by rapporteurs Guy Verhofstadt (Renew, BE), Sven Simon (EPP, DE), Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, DE), Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, DE) and Helmut Scholz (Die Linke, DE), criticising the fact that the Council did not deal with the European Parliament’s proposals on the European treaties at its meeting this week, ECR MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, representing the European Conservatives and Reformists Group who is critical about the Parliamentary proposal and the procedure of Treaty change itself, said:

“The Council is right not to consider the proposal of the turbo-European majority in the European Parliament. The ideas are ill-timed and too far-reaching. They would force the Member States into a corset that would soon be torn apart.

“Contrary to their claims of making the EU more democratic, the proposals would undermine national democracies and national parliaments. The peoples of Europe would be faced with a radically centralised EU, de facto turning it into an oligarchic European super state, beyond democratic control.

“It is time for the so-called pro-Europeans to stop pulling the wool over people’s eyes by saying that more Europe means more democracy. We reached the point long ago where more and more Europe no longer serves citizens. In order to preserve the EU, we must limit it to its core tasks. Only in this way can the friendly and equal relationship between the Member States be maintained in the long term.”