Germany wants a federal Europe but where UK has no veto

Led by Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, foreign ministers of France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Portugal and Luxembourg were part of the “Future of Europe” group that developed radical proposals to solve the long term European crisis.  However, not all members of the group signed up to every the proposal.

According to the proposals unveiled in Warsaw, the group wants a federal Europe with a directly elected European Commission President who would replace the President of the European Council, currently filled by Herman Von Rompuy. The elected Commission President will then appoint members of the European Government.

Under the new proposals the European Parliament will have the power to initiate legislation, a power it currently lacks. Additionally, the Future of Europe group called for a sub chamber of the European Parliament dedicated to the 17 members of the common currency union.

The most radical proposal was the call for a common foreign and defence policy.

"To make the EU into a real actor on the global scene we believe that we should in the long term introduce more majority decisions in the common foreign and security policy sphere, or at least prevent one single member state from being able to obstruct initiatives," the report said.

It continued, "Aim for a European defence policy with joint efforts regarding the defence industry (eg the creation of a single market for armament projects); for some members of the group this could eventually involve a European army."

This would mean a fundamental change to current European treaties. The foreign ministers have suggested that no single member should be able to restrain other member states from “further advancing in integration”.

They suggest that instead of unanimity, the treaty changes should be done by a super qualified majority. This means the UK will not have a veto.