In Europa la democrazia è un diritto inalienabile e non negoziabile
Dichiarazione congiunta di MFE-MEIT-GFE
In the light of attempts by some Member states to challenge the principle of the rule of law and to deny that the European Union is a community of values, we appeal the European institutions to adopt as an urgent matter a short and unequivocal common declaration confirming that “in Europe democracy is an inalienable and unnegotiable right”.
This declaration has to:
- Hold firm on the foundation and legacy of the democratic system, its practical concept and core elements of the Rule of Law, such as transparency, accountability, the democratic process for enacting law, legal certainty, prohibition of arbitrariness, access to justice before independent and impartial courts, respect for human rights, non-discrimination and equality before the law
- Keep in mind that the accession (art. 49 TEU) and the membership (art. 6 TEU) to the European Union includes the supremacy of law, the institutional balance, the judicial review, the (procedural) fundamental rights including the right to a judicial remedy as well as the principles of equality and proportionality.
The full respect of all these principles exclude any compromise on the interpretation of the European rules in the implementation of EU legal, economic, political and financial acts.
With this in mind, the challenge posed by the veto of Poland and Hungary clearly shows that there is an urgent need both to reform the European budget, including by overcoming unanimity, and to establish a new constitutional Treaty, that incorporates these principles in a binding manner.
Moreover, it becomes evident that the idea of overcoming the veto by Hungary and Poland by transforming the Next Generation EU in an intergovernmental treaty is erroneous, because it would be a step back from what NGEU represents for the European Union and would transform the first true attempt of having a European public debt into twenty-five national debts.
Polish and Hungarian governments could block the Multiannual Financial Framework and at the same time the increase in the ceiling of own resources but only indirectly the Next Generation EU.
Poland’s and Hungary’s veto could stoke talk of Polskexit and Magyexit inevitably creating a deep gap between the two governments and their citizens, most of which want to remain even more that the majority that wanted to join the EU in 2003.
It is important to allow European political parties and Civil Society organisations promote Citizens’ Conventions in Warsaw and Budapest to discuss about the relationship with EU as a public space of the Conference on the future of Europe. But above all it is now necessary and urgent to reform the European Union and establish a new constitutional Treaty with countries and people accepting to abandon the inefficient intergovernmental method and build a new democratic, fair and inclusive system. The Conference on the Future of Europe must be given this mandate.
