Proposals for Selected Constitutional Changes in the EU in the Drafts of the European Parliament and the Franco-German Working Group 2023

Abstract

The subject of this article is a comparative analysis of the 2023 proposals made by the European Parliament and the Franco-German working group for changes to the four horizontal building blocks of the EU system, namely the axiology, the budget, the enhanced cooperation and the treaty revision procedure. The analysis leads the author to conclude that the initiative of convening another intergovernmental conference was not only premature, but was also based on a tactical manoeuvre by these states, similar to that of the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002–2003) and the Intergovernmental Conference (2003–2004), that the enlargement of the EU with potentially nine new member states necessitated a radical reform of the EU system.