EU’s future according to MEP Alain Lamassoure: more small members, new competences, and Ukraine inside the Union

“The future of the European Union (EU) is a different union with more small members, new competencies that will become mandatory with an effective decision-making process, and Ukraine (as well as Poland) inside the Union, being the arch-enemy of Russia for probably a generation”, concluded Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Alain Lamassoure, in a conference that took place last Monday at UPF – Barcelona School of Management as part of the series “Leaders at UPF-BSM”. During his speech, Lamassoure was accompanied by UPF-BSM’s Director General and Provost José Manuel Martínez Sierra and Professor Manuel Cienfuegos. Associate Provost for Business Development and Partnerships Josep Maria Galí welcomed the attendees.

Lamassoure started his presentation by recalling the lengthy constitutional journey that culminated with the Lisbon Treaty: “We took a year and a half to get the final draft of the constitutional treaty, then went through the ratification process, with referendums that were turned down in France and the Netherlands. So, we had to start from square one again and, in the end, we had to negotiate a new treaty that was ratified by national parliaments. All in all, it took us almost a decade”.

In fact, in a nod to the city of Barcelona, the MEP said he often compares the European construction to the Sagrada Familia temple: “It is not completed yet, it’s underway. It started more than 70 years ago and, although it’s a great success, it is still unfinished”.

“Our ambition was to invent a kind of relationship that made war impossible. That was Jean Monet’s original idea: un jardin à la française, a big symmetrical garden where everything is foreseen, and where the French and the German were united in the same project to build things together in the hope that they talk, understand, trust and appreciate each other”.

This goal was a complete utopia in the 1950s, but Alain Lamassoure asserted it has been a solid success: “2 out of 3 French people say that the closest foreigners to the French are the Germans, and the Germans say it’s the French. This is an unprecedented miracle. It’s unique globally, there’s no other similar case in neighboring countries”, he argued.

The war in Ukraine, a great new challenge

Unfortunately, this success has been clouded by the war in Ukraine: “The idea of talking about defense was a sin until last year. But the invasion of Ukraine, which is our neighbor, by Russia has changed things. We will have a big new challenge for the coming decades in Europe”.

“In 5 to 10 years, by the year 2030, Ukraine will be an EU member”, anticipated Lamassoure. “There are also half a dozen candidates who still don’t meet the criteria, but who will do more or less by the same time. Therefore, we will have a very different Europe with the same competencies, but even more responsibilities: a common defense and common foreign policy, with 36 members (a lot of them small, therefore overrepresented)”. This poses a risk of a majority of small members winning decisions against a minority of bigger states that represent a higher population, the MEP explained. “This is unacceptable. Only Germany is aware of this risk. But when France, Italy, Spain, etc. find out, their citizens won’t accept it either”.

After the long decade that culminated with the Lisbon Treaty, “changing the situation will require working on a new treaty. Therefore, we have to embark on a social process to do so”, he remarked.