While oil from Russia is no longer wanted, there are fears about Russian gas supplies. German industry is still too dependent to be able to cope with a shortfall. The demand for subsidies from the federal government for energy-saving measures in building renovations has increased to such an extent that the pots ran dry faster than expected. Manuel Berkel has analyzed why further applications can no longer be approved for the time being and why this is hitting the industry particularly hard at the present time.
Yesterday, several EU countries sent a letter to the Commission calling for mandatory solar rooves. Photovoltaic systems are to be installed on certain buildings on a mandatory basis in order to achieve the currently pressing targets. Not among the senders: Germany.
There is hacking and stalling everywhere you look. A compromise is also not in sight in the negotiations on ETS reform. Agreement on the introduction of the second ETS continues to be particularly difficult.
In France, on the other hand, everything happened surprisingly quickly: shortly after the presidential election, in which Jean-Luc Mélenchon narrowly missed the runoff, he is now forming a strong left-wing alliance with the Socialists and Greens against Emmanuel Macron in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. Tanja Kuchenbecker explains why this alliance could pose a threat to the EU.
Have a great weekend!
After the stop-and-go on federal funding for building renovation, the traffic light coalition cannot meet demand for another energy-saving program fast enough. For the time being, subsidies for the Energy and Resource Efficiency in the Economy (EEW) program would only be paid out for projects that have already been approved. This was explained by a spokesman for the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) on Thursday evening at the request of Europe.Table. However, the authority does not want to speak of a funding stop.
With the program, BAFA and KfW promote the acquisition of energy-efficient new plants, the optimization of existing processes, and the conversion of heat applications in industry and commerce to renewable energies. According to the Ministry of Economics, more than 11,000 applications with a total funding volume of €567 million were approved last year.
The background to the current delays is the rapid increase in interest from companies as a result of high energy costs and the ongoing budget negotiations. Following the change of government, the federal budget for 2022 has not yet been passed. “The ‘Energy and Resource Efficiency in Business’ (EEW) program is therefore under provisional budgetary management. For the EEW program, therefore, only projects that have already been approved will be paid out for the time being,” BAFA Europe.Table announced.
The authority went on to explain: “Additional funding for the issuance of new allocation notices is only available to a reduced extent until the federal budget comes into force. There can therefore be no question of a funding freeze.”
It remained open with this answer whether the Bundestag has already released additional subsidies despite the still pending adoption of the entire budget. In the morning, the responsible head of department in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Oliver Bornkamm, had still spoken at the Berlin Energy Days that it would only be possible to “put a stamp on the applications” once the Budget Committee had approved a further so-called over-budget commitment appropriation for additional funding.
In any case, the association of companies that earn their money from energy efficiency is alarmed. “The beginning of the legislative period coincides extremely unfavorably with acutely high demand in all sectors of the economy. It is therefore all the more important that the regular federal budget is in place soon,” says Tatjana Ruhl of the German Business Initiative for Energy Efficiency (DENEFF). At the Berlin Energy Days on Wednesday, DENEFF had already criticized the fact that the funds from the support program were currently being used primarily to draw up transformation concepts for companies – but not yet for investments that would quickly bring about energy or resource savings.
For the economy, the faltering award comes at an inopportune time. A few days ago, calculations by the Jülich Research Center revealed that several energy-intensive industries and power plants in the EU would have to be cut off from gas for weeks if Russian supplies were reduced by two-thirds and gas storage facilities were to be filled until winter.
However, some investments in saving energy or switching to renewable energies are worthwhile even without subsidies, given the current high gas and oil prices. “Many measures that companies previously rejected are now paying off,” said Paul Fay of the Association of Energy Efficiency Networks Germany (AGEEN) at the panel discussion. “We just have to hope that companies survive.”
The need for information also shows how threatening the situation is for many companies. Some companies are acutely preoccupied with securing their energy supplies in the first place and have no time to plan efficiency measures, said Steffen Joest of the Initiative for Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection Networks (IEEKN). Other companies were looking all the more for advice. Information is now being prepared on fast-acting optimizations in energy consumption that do not require major investments.
According to Bornkamm, the German Federal Ministry of Economics is currently examining how the EEW program can be further developed, in particular, to reduce gas consumption. Accordingly, new funding could be provided for deep geothermal energy, which can also supply renewable heat beyond 100 degrees, concentrating solar thermal energy and mobile heat storage systems.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon came third in the presidential election. While the Socialists and Greens did poorly, he finished behind the far-right Marine Le Pen and narrowly missed the runoff. Under this condition, he is now seeking to unite the fragmented left.
The Socialists and Greens have backed the line of Mélenchon and his party La France Insoumise (LFI, Indomitable France). Mélenchon’s line: anti-EU and anti-capitalist. Together, they announced a “new ecological and social people’s union” and are sacrificing their European ideals in order to continue playing politics. For Mélenchon stands for a Europe of nations and threatens with “European disobedience”.
The nationalist current is thus taking over the left in France and moving it to the far-left fringe. If the new alliance of the left wins a majority of the 577 seats in the parliamentary elections on June 12 and 19, Mélenchon could repeatedly run afoul of the pro-European Macron as prime minister.
First Mélenchon won over the Communists (PCF) and Greens, then the Socialists, whose party council was to decide officially on Thursday evening whether to enter into the alliance. An agreement with LFI had already preceded. Together, they want to fight the “injustice” of Macron’s policies, make France more social, and prevent the extreme right from taking power. The Greens were able to win over Mélenchon with his climate policy program, and they all agree on raising the minimum wage.
For Mélenchon, Brussels is the capitalist opponent; he has always criticized Germany as a partner. He has become somewhat more moderate in tone in recent days so as not to frighten his partners, but he does not rule out breaking EU law if necessary. Above all, the debt rules are a thorn in his side; after all, he needs a lot of money to finance his social plans, including retirement at 60. He also disagrees with NATO; he wants to pull France out. Mélenchon came under criticism during the Ukraine war because he had previously shown himself to be too Russia-friendly. He was quick to condemn the attack on Ukraine, however. Nevertheless, his desire to break away from the US and NATO is clear.
If the now united left gains a majority, it will be difficult for Macron, who will have to agree on legislation and ministerial posts with his political opponents. This is called “cohabitation” in France. Macron must hope to hold a majority in parliament with his allies, and could also make deals with the right. Macron’s LREM party, which wants to call itself “Renaissance” in the future, is already joining forces with François Bayrou’s MoDEM and Edouard Philippe’s Horizons.
However, political experts believe that Mélenchon’s momentum, which has been building at the national level, will wane at the regional level. This is because there, citizens usually vote for the candidate they already know. In the ranks of LREM, many also hope that a Prime Minister Mélenchon will scare off the French. According to polls, around six out of ten French people are in favor of cohabitation, but only a minority are in favor of a Prime Minister Mélenchon.
As in the presidential elections, there will be two rounds of voting. If no one gets an absolute majority in the first round of the parliamentary elections, all those who have achieved at least 12.5 percent of the registered voters advance to the second round. A relative majority is then sufficient to claim victory. In this election, it is important to have alliance partners.
Polls are less meaningful than in presidential elections because they involve local politicians. According to the latest Harris Interactive poll, LREM would get 24 percent in the first round, Marine Le Pen’s RN (Rassemblement National) 23 percent, and Mélenchon’s LFI 19 percent. The Union of the Left could collectively reach 28 percent, LREM alone 24 percent, Le Pen’s far-right 23 percent, and the Republicans 8 percent. So far, there are only polls for the first round of voting.
However, the polling institute Harris Interactive vaguely estimates that LREM, with alliance partners, could still end up with 336 to 378 seats, i.e., an absolute majority. This would eliminate the danger of Mélenchon as Prime Minister for Europe. LREM initially had 306 seats in Macron’s first mandate, while LFI came in with only 17 seats. It is not considered certain that the left will win through the Union. Only 70 to 90 seats in total are assumed. The far-right could get up to 95 seats if RN does not combine with the other far-right. The Republicans are likely to get 35 to 65 seats.
However, Mélenchon’s plans also met with criticism from numerous Socialists and Greens. Former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve even announced his intention to leave the Socialist party, reasoning: “The independence of the Republic has never meant breaking its military alliances or coming to terms with authoritarian regimes or dictatorships.” The reorientation of EU policy could only destroy the European project. Former President François Hollande also warned that the alliance would call into question European commitment. Green presidential candidate Yannick Jadot declared, “That would be the end of the EU.”
Mario Draghi is in favor. Will Emmanuel Macron also support a revision of the EU treaties, with the aim of burying the unanimity rule in particular? We will get the answer – perhaps – on May 9 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where the French president will speak at the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Over the past twelve months, 800 randomly selected citizens have debated digitally submitted ideas as well as inputs from national events and citizens’ forums in the conference plenary (also known as CoFoE in EU jargon). The result of this process is 49 reform proposals integrating over 300 measures in nine thematic areas: Environment, Health, Economy/Social Justice, Europe in the World, Values/Rule of Law, Digital Transformation, European Democracy, Migration, and Education/Youth/Sport.
These recommendations are part of the final report, which will be handed over to Ursula von der Leyen, EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony in Strasbourg on May 9. France holds the rotating EU Council presidency until June 30. The French president plans to give a speech on Europe there – on the same day that he will meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his first official state visit after his re-election. Will there be a second Sorbonne speech?
In Brussels, MEP Pascal Durand (Renew), a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs, is looking into just that. He exchanges views with Clément Beaune, Secretary of State for European Affairs in Paris, on Macron’s speech on May 9.
Durand does not want to reveal the content of the speech in an interview with Europe.Table, but he dampens expectations: One should “not confuse the roles” – that of Emmanuel Macron as President of the Council, and that of the President of the French Republic. “As president of the member state that currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, it is difficult for him to make a difference,” he explains.
For the MEP, however, the conference itself has opened a new path “linking representative and participatory democracy.” It is of strategic importance, in his opinion, because the conference takes place at a time when citizens have a “complex” relationship with participatory democracy. However, it is also because of the Covid crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which have painfully brought the necessary reform of EU institutions back into the spotlight. Brussels is now looking for its magic potion to join forces.
According to Pascal Durand, one of the big criticisms from citizens is the unanimity principle in the Council. After all, he said, “no democracy works with the unanimity rule.” As a reminder, the Council must vote unanimously in a number of areas that member states consider sensitive. For example, in the Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU enlargement, budget issues or the granting of new rights to EU citizens.
For Italian Prime Minister Draghi, the European Union must be reformed so that the project can meet the current challenges. He urged the member states before the European Parliament on Tuesday to consider a recasting of the treaties so that the common project has the political weapons to influence the international stage.
“If this requires the start of a path that will lead to the revision of the treaties, this should be embraced with courage and confidence,” Draghi stressed – taking particular aim at the unanimity principle. Negotiations on the sixth sanctions package proposed by the Commission this week are a good example of institutional deadlock. EU diplomats are meeting today to possibly give the green light to the new package against Russia. But there is opposition, especially from Hungary and Slovakia, to an oil embargo, despite long transition periods.
Ambitions have to be lowered again and again in order to find a compromise among governments. That irritates many in Brussels. “Officially, the Council is made up of 27 member states, but you can tell it’s really 28 or 29,” says an EU official who regularly attends EU summits. After all, “China and Russia also invite themselves to Council meetings.” That’s aimed at Hungary.
Where do we go from here? “The question is whether the 49 recommendations will not disappear into an institutional drawer,” says Pascal Durand. If the representatives of the three EU institutions did not follow up on the recommendations formulated by the citizens, “then this conference will be a failure.” The European Parliament is pushing the pace. On Wednesday, MEPs adopted a declaration aimed at ensuring that the results of the citizens’ dialogue are implemented. MEPs want to launch a constitutional convention for a comprehensive reform of the European Union.
This includes, for example, the demands to abandon the principle of unanimity in almost all policy areas (yes, again), furthermore to grant the European Parliament a right of initiative for legislative proposals as well as for significantly more EU competencies in the areas of health and social policy.
This requires amendments to the EU treaties. They can be amended by a constitutional convention in which representatives of the national parliaments and governments, as well as the European Parliament and the Commission, participate. The last far-reaching reform of the European Union took place in 2007 with the signing and subsequent implementation of the Lisbon Treaty. That was a long time ago.
While oil from Russia is no longer wanted, there are fears about Russian gas supplies. German industry is still too dependent to be able to cope with a shortfall. The demand for subsidies from the federal government for energy-saving measures in building renovations has increased to such an extent that the pots ran dry faster than expected. Manuel Berkel has analyzed why further applications can no longer be approved for the time being and why this is hitting the industry particularly hard at the present time.
Yesterday, several EU countries sent a letter to the Commission calling for mandatory solar rooves. Photovoltaic systems are to be installed on certain buildings on a mandatory basis in order to achieve the currently pressing targets. Not among the senders: Germany.
There is hacking and stalling everywhere you look. A compromise is also not in sight in the negotiations on ETS reform. Agreement on the introduction of the second ETS continues to be particularly difficult.
In France, on the other hand, everything happened surprisingly quickly: shortly after the presidential election, in which Jean-Luc Mélenchon narrowly missed the runoff, he is now forming a strong left-wing alliance with the Socialists and Greens against Emmanuel Macron in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. Tanja Kuchenbecker explains why this alliance could pose a threat to the EU.
Have a great weekend!
After the stop-and-go on federal funding for building renovation, the traffic light coalition cannot meet demand for another energy-saving program fast enough. For the time being, subsidies for the Energy and Resource Efficiency in the Economy (EEW) program would only be paid out for projects that have already been approved. This was explained by a spokesman for the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) on Thursday evening at the request of Europe.Table. However, the authority does not want to speak of a funding stop.
With the program, BAFA and KfW promote the acquisition of energy-efficient new plants, the optimization of existing processes, and the conversion of heat applications in industry and commerce to renewable energies. According to the Ministry of Economics, more than 11,000 applications with a total funding volume of €567 million were approved last year.
The background to the current delays is the rapid increase in interest from companies as a result of high energy costs and the ongoing budget negotiations. Following the change of government, the federal budget for 2022 has not yet been passed. “The ‘Energy and Resource Efficiency in Business’ (EEW) program is therefore under provisional budgetary management. For the EEW program, therefore, only projects that have already been approved will be paid out for the time being,” BAFA Europe.Table announced.
The authority went on to explain: “Additional funding for the issuance of new allocation notices is only available to a reduced extent until the federal budget comes into force. There can therefore be no question of a funding freeze.”
It remained open with this answer whether the Bundestag has already released additional subsidies despite the still pending adoption of the entire budget. In the morning, the responsible head of department in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Oliver Bornkamm, had still spoken at the Berlin Energy Days that it would only be possible to “put a stamp on the applications” once the Budget Committee had approved a further so-called over-budget commitment appropriation for additional funding.
In any case, the association of companies that earn their money from energy efficiency is alarmed. “The beginning of the legislative period coincides extremely unfavorably with acutely high demand in all sectors of the economy. It is therefore all the more important that the regular federal budget is in place soon,” says Tatjana Ruhl of the German Business Initiative for Energy Efficiency (DENEFF). At the Berlin Energy Days on Wednesday, DENEFF had already criticized the fact that the funds from the support program were currently being used primarily to draw up transformation concepts for companies – but not yet for investments that would quickly bring about energy or resource savings.
For the economy, the faltering award comes at an inopportune time. A few days ago, calculations by the Jülich Research Center revealed that several energy-intensive industries and power plants in the EU would have to be cut off from gas for weeks if Russian supplies were reduced by two-thirds and gas storage facilities were to be filled until winter.
However, some investments in saving energy or switching to renewable energies are worthwhile even without subsidies, given the current high gas and oil prices. “Many measures that companies previously rejected are now paying off,” said Paul Fay of the Association of Energy Efficiency Networks Germany (AGEEN) at the panel discussion. “We just have to hope that companies survive.”
The need for information also shows how threatening the situation is for many companies. Some companies are acutely preoccupied with securing their energy supplies in the first place and have no time to plan efficiency measures, said Steffen Joest of the Initiative for Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection Networks (IEEKN). Other companies were looking all the more for advice. Information is now being prepared on fast-acting optimizations in energy consumption that do not require major investments.
According to Bornkamm, the German Federal Ministry of Economics is currently examining how the EEW program can be further developed, in particular, to reduce gas consumption. Accordingly, new funding could be provided for deep geothermal energy, which can also supply renewable heat beyond 100 degrees, concentrating solar thermal energy and mobile heat storage systems.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon came third in the presidential election. While the Socialists and Greens did poorly, he finished behind the far-right Marine Le Pen and narrowly missed the runoff. Under this condition, he is now seeking to unite the fragmented left.
The Socialists and Greens have backed the line of Mélenchon and his party La France Insoumise (LFI, Indomitable France). Mélenchon’s line: anti-EU and anti-capitalist. Together, they announced a “new ecological and social people’s union” and are sacrificing their European ideals in order to continue playing politics. For Mélenchon stands for a Europe of nations and threatens with “European disobedience”.
The nationalist current is thus taking over the left in France and moving it to the far-left fringe. If the new alliance of the left wins a majority of the 577 seats in the parliamentary elections on June 12 and 19, Mélenchon could repeatedly run afoul of the pro-European Macron as prime minister.
First Mélenchon won over the Communists (PCF) and Greens, then the Socialists, whose party council was to decide officially on Thursday evening whether to enter into the alliance. An agreement with LFI had already preceded. Together, they want to fight the “injustice” of Macron’s policies, make France more social, and prevent the extreme right from taking power. The Greens were able to win over Mélenchon with his climate policy program, and they all agree on raising the minimum wage.
For Mélenchon, Brussels is the capitalist opponent; he has always criticized Germany as a partner. He has become somewhat more moderate in tone in recent days so as not to frighten his partners, but he does not rule out breaking EU law if necessary. Above all, the debt rules are a thorn in his side; after all, he needs a lot of money to finance his social plans, including retirement at 60. He also disagrees with NATO; he wants to pull France out. Mélenchon came under criticism during the Ukraine war because he had previously shown himself to be too Russia-friendly. He was quick to condemn the attack on Ukraine, however. Nevertheless, his desire to break away from the US and NATO is clear.
If the now united left gains a majority, it will be difficult for Macron, who will have to agree on legislation and ministerial posts with his political opponents. This is called “cohabitation” in France. Macron must hope to hold a majority in parliament with his allies, and could also make deals with the right. Macron’s LREM party, which wants to call itself “Renaissance” in the future, is already joining forces with François Bayrou’s MoDEM and Edouard Philippe’s Horizons.
However, political experts believe that Mélenchon’s momentum, which has been building at the national level, will wane at the regional level. This is because there, citizens usually vote for the candidate they already know. In the ranks of LREM, many also hope that a Prime Minister Mélenchon will scare off the French. According to polls, around six out of ten French people are in favor of cohabitation, but only a minority are in favor of a Prime Minister Mélenchon.
As in the presidential elections, there will be two rounds of voting. If no one gets an absolute majority in the first round of the parliamentary elections, all those who have achieved at least 12.5 percent of the registered voters advance to the second round. A relative majority is then sufficient to claim victory. In this election, it is important to have alliance partners.
Polls are less meaningful than in presidential elections because they involve local politicians. According to the latest Harris Interactive poll, LREM would get 24 percent in the first round, Marine Le Pen’s RN (Rassemblement National) 23 percent, and Mélenchon’s LFI 19 percent. The Union of the Left could collectively reach 28 percent, LREM alone 24 percent, Le Pen’s far-right 23 percent, and the Republicans 8 percent. So far, there are only polls for the first round of voting.
However, the polling institute Harris Interactive vaguely estimates that LREM, with alliance partners, could still end up with 336 to 378 seats, i.e., an absolute majority. This would eliminate the danger of Mélenchon as Prime Minister for Europe. LREM initially had 306 seats in Macron’s first mandate, while LFI came in with only 17 seats. It is not considered certain that the left will win through the Union. Only 70 to 90 seats in total are assumed. The far-right could get up to 95 seats if RN does not combine with the other far-right. The Republicans are likely to get 35 to 65 seats.
However, Mélenchon’s plans also met with criticism from numerous Socialists and Greens. Former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve even announced his intention to leave the Socialist party, reasoning: “The independence of the Republic has never meant breaking its military alliances or coming to terms with authoritarian regimes or dictatorships.” The reorientation of EU policy could only destroy the European project. Former President François Hollande also warned that the alliance would call into question European commitment. Green presidential candidate Yannick Jadot declared, “That would be the end of the EU.”
Mario Draghi is in favor. Will Emmanuel Macron also support a revision of the EU treaties, with the aim of burying the unanimity rule in particular? We will get the answer – perhaps – on May 9 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where the French president will speak at the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Over the past twelve months, 800 randomly selected citizens have debated digitally submitted ideas as well as inputs from national events and citizens’ forums in the conference plenary (also known as CoFoE in EU jargon). The result of this process is 49 reform proposals integrating over 300 measures in nine thematic areas: Environment, Health, Economy/Social Justice, Europe in the World, Values/Rule of Law, Digital Transformation, European Democracy, Migration, and Education/Youth/Sport.
These recommendations are part of the final report, which will be handed over to Ursula von der Leyen, EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony in Strasbourg on May 9. France holds the rotating EU Council presidency until June 30. The French president plans to give a speech on Europe there – on the same day that he will meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his first official state visit after his re-election. Will there be a second Sorbonne speech?
In Brussels, MEP Pascal Durand (Renew), a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs, is looking into just that. He exchanges views with Clément Beaune, Secretary of State for European Affairs in Paris, on Macron’s speech on May 9.
Durand does not want to reveal the content of the speech in an interview with Europe.Table, but he dampens expectations: One should “not confuse the roles” – that of Emmanuel Macron as President of the Council, and that of the President of the French Republic. “As president of the member state that currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, it is difficult for him to make a difference,” he explains.
For the MEP, however, the conference itself has opened a new path “linking representative and participatory democracy.” It is of strategic importance, in his opinion, because the conference takes place at a time when citizens have a “complex” relationship with participatory democracy. However, it is also because of the Covid crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which have painfully brought the necessary reform of EU institutions back into the spotlight. Brussels is now looking for its magic potion to join forces.
According to Pascal Durand, one of the big criticisms from citizens is the unanimity principle in the Council. After all, he said, “no democracy works with the unanimity rule.” As a reminder, the Council must vote unanimously in a number of areas that member states consider sensitive. For example, in the Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU enlargement, budget issues or the granting of new rights to EU citizens.
For Italian Prime Minister Draghi, the European Union must be reformed so that the project can meet the current challenges. He urged the member states before the European Parliament on Tuesday to consider a recasting of the treaties so that the common project has the political weapons to influence the international stage.
“If this requires the start of a path that will lead to the revision of the treaties, this should be embraced with courage and confidence,” Draghi stressed – taking particular aim at the unanimity principle. Negotiations on the sixth sanctions package proposed by the Commission this week are a good example of institutional deadlock. EU diplomats are meeting today to possibly give the green light to the new package against Russia. But there is opposition, especially from Hungary and Slovakia, to an oil embargo, despite long transition periods.
Ambitions have to be lowered again and again in order to find a compromise among governments. That irritates many in Brussels. “Officially, the Council is made up of 27 member states, but you can tell it’s really 28 or 29,” says an EU official who regularly attends EU summits. After all, “China and Russia also invite themselves to Council meetings.” That’s aimed at Hungary.
Where do we go from here? “The question is whether the 49 recommendations will not disappear into an institutional drawer,” says Pascal Durand. If the representatives of the three EU institutions did not follow up on the recommendations formulated by the citizens, “then this conference will be a failure.” The European Parliament is pushing the pace. On Wednesday, MEPs adopted a declaration aimed at ensuring that the results of the citizens’ dialogue are implemented. MEPs want to launch a constitutional convention for a comprehensive reform of the European Union.
This includes, for example, the demands to abandon the principle of unanimity in almost all policy areas (yes, again), furthermore to grant the European Parliament a right of initiative for legislative proposals as well as for significantly more EU competencies in the areas of health and social policy.
This requires amendments to the EU treaties. They can be amended by a constitutional convention in which representatives of the national parliaments and governments, as well as the European Parliament and the Commission, participate. The last far-reaching reform of the European Union took place in 2007 with the signing and subsequent implementation of the Lisbon Treaty. That was a long time ago.
