Renewing the EU’s Capacity to Govern its Future

"A reform of the EU treaties, as urgent as it may seem, is not feasible under the current rules. It is therefore necessary to launch a process of internal constitutional reform in small steps," says cep expert Stefano Milia, who wrote the study with cep researchers Eleonora Poli and Andrea De Petris in Rome.

A European response to geopolitical challenges can therefore only succeed with greater involvement of Member States. Milia calls for a mechanism to provide an agile and strategic decision-making method across sectors.

Eleonora Poli argues that the planned enlargement of the EU to include the Western Balkans and Ukraine should be restructured as a strategic geopolitical objective of the EU. "Although the cost of a new enlargement should not be higher than in the 2004-2007 period, the EU needs to rationalise its spending and invest in strategic and innovative projects in order to be successful and not to burden the current members economically with additional budget cuts," says Poli.

According to De Petris, all these measures require a clear and unambiguous political will on the part of European governments and a stricter adherence to European principles of the rule of law.

The study is the final part of an eight-part cep series on the challenges facing the EU after the European elections.