MAE: Amending EU Treaties, laborious exercise, significant progress can also be made in current context

The amendment of the European Union Treaties is a "very complex, laborious and long-lasting exercise", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) said on Tuesday, noting that "important" progress can be made in the current context, as well.Romania, along with 12 other EU Member States, has joined a non-paper which sets out positioning elements of principle for the outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFE) and the prospects for development and action at EU level following its conclusion.According to a MAE press release, the position paper signed by the 13 EU states "expresses very clearly their commitment and willingness" to engage "constructively" in the reform processes highlighted as necessary by the "careful" study of the proposals resulting from the CoFE debates."Romania, together with other Member States, considers that the priority, at this moment, must be given to the concrete aspects that concern the European citizen, as they emerged from the CoFE debates, with emphasis on the post-crisis economic recovery, job creation, a fair process of climate transition, well-performing health systems, the EU's energetic action in the neighborhood, especially in the context of current developments and the negative impact of Russia's illegal war on Ukraine. Significant progress can also be made in the current framework of the EU Treaties and, as the CoFE debates have shown, European citizens are primarily concerned with the concrete issues mentioned above," the MAE explained.According to the MAE, the document proposes a step-by-step approach, prioritizing the EU's response to the "pressing" needs of European citizens, starting with an analysis of CoFE's results and all legal options leading to more effective action at European level.The MAE stressed that this "does not rule out the possibility" of an amendment to the EU Treaties."Thus, the document states that no option is ruled out, so as to meet the ideas and concerns of citizens. Amending the EU Treaties is a very complex, laborious and long-lasting exercise, which involves a concentrated effort by the European institutions and the Member States, something that could jeopardize the EU's ability to respond quickly and efficiently to the above-mentioned priority concerns for European citizens, which they have conveyed in the CoFE. Consequently, Romania deems useful a reform process that would give priority to the pressing concerns and expectations of European citizens, as expressed during the conference," the MAE release shows.The ministry pointed out that the proposals "which are not sufficiently analysed involve the risk of diverting energy and political will" from identifying concrete solutions to the concerns of European citizens, but also from the urgent geopolitical challenges facing Europe."Therefore, it is not a question of excluding institutional reforms, where appropriate, but of avoiding the haste of such processes and their initiation without a necessary and thorough analysis. Consistently, throughout the whole process of the future Conference on the Future of Europe, Romania's representatives have been actively involved in facilitating the organisation of the widest possible debates on the priority topics of the conference. Also, in the debates at European level, Romania gave priority to the streamlining of European policies that offer concrete benefits for the citizens and that would lead to a more efficient, more resilient Union, that responds to the current challenges and concerns of the citizens," the release also states.The countries that signed the position paper, together with Romania, are Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden.