"The European Parliament is launching a plan to change the Treaties which, if not stopped, will mean a massive transfer of powers to the EU and a complete change in the Community system", said MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski after today’s adoption of the European Parliament’s proposal for the amendment of the Treaties.

“The proposed reform of the EU Treaties would mean a complete change of system and the construction of a superstate. It proposes a radical centralisation of the EU, transforming it de facto into a centralised oligarchic European superstate beyond democratic control”, the ECR shadow rapporteur warned. “Adopting these changes means weakening the Member States by reducing and taking over their competences.”

The text proposed by Guy Verhofstadt (Renew), Sven Simon (EPP), Gabriele Bischoff (S&D), Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE) and Helmut Scholz (The Left) was based on the outcomes of the Conference on the Future of Europe, concluded in May 2022, which the ECR Group described as unfairly organised because it was dominated by speakers representing politically biased and centralist perspective.

Commenting on the ongoing work, Saryusz-Wolski, who was also a co-rapporteur on the file from mid-2022 to July 2023, but then withdrew, said:

“The work on the report was carried out in a non-transparent and unfair manner. Although consensus was established as the main decision-making procedure, this was quickly changed to ‘consensus minus one’ to exclude the ECR.

“Despite the gravity of the topics concerning the EU’s constitutional changes, there has not been sufficiently in-depth discussion and comprehensive analysis regarding all the topics. Changes of a purely political and ideological nature have been pushed through.

“Thoroughly substantiated and concrete proposals, which I submitted on behalf of the ECR, aiming to enhance and reinforce the functioning of treaty-based principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in the Union, were outright rejected.”

Throughout the negotiations, Saryusz-Wolski had repeatedly raised objections to the amendments proposed by the representatives of the other political groups. However, his protests were not taken into account and the ECR Group’s proposals were ignored. As a result, he withdrew and then reiterated his position in writing.

The draft report, as it stands, is completely unacceptable to the ECR Group. The European Conservatives and Reformists do not support the general idea of organising a Convention to amend the Treaties.

“The report also proposes cultural and ideological changes by replacing the term ‘equality between men and women’ throughout the EU treaties with the term ‘gender equality’, which refers to anti-scientific, intrusive gender ideology”, Saryusz-Wolski added.

“The proposed Treaty changes reduce the role of states to that of federal states: the smaller Member States would be vassals of the big ones and Germany will be the hegemon. It is significant that four of the five rapporteurs come from Germany. The centralisation of the EU is apparently a German obsession, even if it could bring down the entire EU edifice”, the Polish MEP continued.

As the report is completely unrealistic in view of the institutional architecture of the EU and the different views of the Member States, the ECR Group sees it as completely out of the question that the report will make it through the Council.

The text was adopted in Committee with 19 in favour, 6 against and 1 abstention.

The plenary vote is expected to take place in November in Strasbourg.