Press Release after the EU summit of June 2007
The Council of the European Union of Brussels 21 to the 23 June 2007
The future of Europe has to be handed over to its citizens!
The proposed changes to the European treaties are dishonourable in the face of the importance of European cooperation. The proposed European constitution was rejected in two member states because of serious social and democratic deficits in the European Union and its common market. The changes proposed by the council do not give an answer to these social and democratic concerns. They rather aggravate the existing doubts as the changes of the treaties are negotiated behind closed doors without any participation of citizens or parliamentarians.
That’s why 16 European ATTAC, in their « Ten Principles for a Democratic Treaty”, consider that a new and democratic Assembly, directly elected by the citizens of all European member states, shall be mandated to elaborate, with the effective participation of national parliaments, a proposal for a new Treaty.
However, the road map launched on this council in Brussels proposes a deadline of
the end of 2007, for the elaboration of a new treaty, and June 2009, date of the next European elections, as the ultimate date for the ratification. In other words, it seeks to accelerate the process to avoid a European-wide public debate on the choices presented. This implies fast-track procedures (an Intergovernmental Conference – IGC – with an agenda already decided), secret negotiations, and furthermore, most possibly, ratification procedures which will be strictly parliamentarian, a move that will be justified by the rather narrow ambitions of the Treaty.
The European leaders, gathered at the Council of the European Union, have further discredited the European project in the eyes of its citizens, and they will have to prepare for serious future crises.
Furthermore, while concentrating solely on the simplistic objective of a mini-treaty, no concrete solutions have been proposed by the European leaders to tackle urgent social, ecological and democratic urgencies. The very conjectural revival of the economic growth can only serve to mask the urgency of the present situation. This is marked by the deepening of existing inequalities, the consistent high unemployment rate Europe-wide, the dismantling of public services, the rise of political fundamentalisms, and the massive and unacceptable environmental damage. The present crisis is the result of an economic model which gives priorities to the profit-seeking expediencies of financial actors while favouring the commercialization of the world, the deterioration of social protection mechanisms, and the cleavage of our societies.
This is why our Attac groups consider it, not only vital but also pressing, to establish a new development model, and to impose on the European Union and its member states a number of principles:
o The guarantee of respect and equality of access to the fundamental rights of all European residents;
o The substantial increase of the European budget to take account of the enlargement carried out and to ensure solidarity through massive transfers to the new member states to prevent social and fiscal dumping;
o Race to the top in social rights and taxation in European Union;
o Democratic control of the European Central Bank and the assuming of responsibility of the Euro group and the European parliament in the monetary policy;
o Massive reduction in energy consumption and the transformation of modes of production on a sustainable basis;
o Participation to a new multilateral and open international order, that is dedicated to peace and solidarity among peoples.
The construction of a social, democratic and ecological Europe relies on European cooperation. This is why, in France, after a comprehensive public debate, European citizens rejected the European Constitutional Treaty that was proposed to them in 2005. To pretend that the recent results in the French presidential elections have erased this conscience would be a serious analytical error.
After these undemocratic decisions that the Council of the European Union took during its meeting on the 21th to the 23th of June, we will bring together social movements and other progressive forces in order to initiate new wave of mobilisations. Thus we want to achieve the construction of a social, democratic and ecological Europe.
Signatories: Attac Austria, Attac France, Attac Germany, Attac Spain, Attac Switzerland, Attac Vlaanderen, Attac Denmark and Attac Sweden
June 23th.
Attac has long been engaged in the reflection on European policies and institutions. The association was very active in the campaign for a ‘no’ vote against the TECE (Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe). It has also been engaged in a reflection to find alternatives to the current treaties and EU policies.