Dear President Melonsdear minister Tajani,
I am addressing you publicly to bring to your attention an issue that is very close to my heart and which, I imagine, is also close to your heart, as Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of a founding country of the European Union, and therefore particularly interested in the protection and protection of the values that are at the origin of the Union.
Starting from 1 July, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union should be assumed, on the basis of a rotation mechanism, by Hungary Viktor Orbán. The Council of the European Union is not just any body. It is an intergovernmental institution – I will not explain it to you, who know it, but to those who will read this letter outside the buildings – in which fundamental decisions are made for the future of the Union and its policies.
From 1 July – I quote from a letter from the European Movement of Italy, Spain, France and Poland to the leaders of the European institutions – Viktor Orbán and his twelve ministers (including only one woman) should coordinate the action of the twenty-seven European governments in meetings of the ambassadors, in the numerous committees that take charge of the control and decision-making functions of the national bureaucracies (knowing that it is there that the bureaucratic weight resides in the European Union and not in the European public service) and in the informal meetings that “enrich” every six-monthly presidency cooperating with the President of the European Council in the preparation and continuity of the work of the Heads of State and Government.
A role of great responsibility and influence, especially as regards the legislative and budgetary function of the Union, in the hands of a government and a leader who has proudly defined his country as an “illiberal democracy”, which has been under surveillance procedure (ex art. 7.1. TEU) for clear violations of the rule of law, and which continually uses the right of veto to block decisions for which the treaties require unanimity, as it is once again threatening to do regarding support for Ukraine.
As you know, many Council decisions must be taken unanimously, and this is a rule that I have been fighting against for decades, since it gives every single country, even the smallest, even the most exposed to external influences, even the less democratic, the power to block the decision-making processes of the entire Union, undermining its credibility and efficiency. I fight so much for the abolition of the right of veto and for greater European integration that I gave life – not alone, of course, but I certainly put my own effort into it – a list for the next European elections called United States of ‘Europe; but that’s another story.
Many decisions are taken unanimously, I was saying, but there is one that can be taken by a qualified majority, and it concerns the succession of countries to the Presidency of the Council of the Union: it would be enough to modify the decision taken by the European Council on 1 December 2009, and postpone the Hungarian presidency until after the possible positive resolution of the surveillance procedure pursuant to art. 7.1. TUE. It would not be a sanction, the treaties would not allow it in this form, but a sort of protection and self-protection mechanism for the Union itself on its values, comparable to what happens with conditionalities on budgetary issues. Tusk’s Poland would take over the Presidency of the Council, with the advantages that are evident to all. It would also be a strong message to member and candidate countries on the need for everyone to respect the rule of law as a prerequisite for participating in the Union, benefiting from the single market and European funding. It can therefore be done. But do you want to do it? Here the issue stops being procedural and becomes political. It can be done if someone (quickly, because time is short) takes the initiative to do it and works with the Heads of State and Government who sit in the European Council to build a qualified majority of countries attentive to values that are the foundation the Union. I therefore ask you for the Italian Government to quickly take this initiative by involving the other member countries.
