Repeal The European Council Political Groups Act 2016

[Istkalen]

The existence of Eurogroups has contributed only to partisanship and a fracturing of European unity. I strongly believe that it has only been their weakening, both with my enforcement on the prohibition on the registration and formation of national-level affiliates, as well as with the general decline in participation that all European institutions have seen, that has allowed for a more conducive environment for legislating to form in the European Council.

Let us, then, drive the final stake through the heart of this vampire. Let us at last rid ourselves of this last remnant of a terrible and thankfully bygone age. Let us finally repeal this odious act, and put an end to group mentalities and division.

Iras Tilkanas
Council Speaker and Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

[Istkalen]

Debate will begin NOW and continue until 23:59 GMT on 13 April 2023.

Iras Tilkanas
Council Speaker and Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

[BrumBrum]

I will oppose this act as it is a danger to the functioning of the EU. We need to maybe reform the way Eurogroups work but there is value in Eurogroups for councillours to come together and work together for policies and ideas. In fact we are now in the process of setting up a new Eurogroup which would focus on having more co-operation and harmonisation on trade, economic ,security and education rules and laws throughout Europe as well as advocating for a new free trade zone and passport free travel zone or zones and work on drafting legislation for these purposes. This is the power of Eurogroups to get councillours working together on common legislation goals and sharing their expertise. This is otherwise harder outside of Eurogroups.

James Mizrachi-Roscoe, Councillour for United Duchies

[West-Friezen]

The Grand Duke of the West-Frisians agrees with @BrumBrum . Working together makes us stronger than working alone. Of course, we all know from high school, that working together is a pain in the ass sometimes, but with good rules the results can be magnificent.

As the honorable Tilkanas thinks the project doesn't work we see this as a call for a change in the rules regarding the eurogroup.

Lord Willem of the house Berg
counciller for the Grand Duchy of the West-Frisians

[California]

I wholeheartedly agree with the United Duchies. Reform of eurogroups is necessary but repeal is irresponsible.

[Spain]

Even if I am the Chairman of one of these Eurogroups, the European Progressive Alliance, I do agree that at some point in the past there were some Eurogroups that were not the EPA that contributed to a fracturing of European unity. However, and as I have just said, this is part of our Union's past, and does not happen anymore. Therefore, I do not believe it is necessary to repeal this act.

Concerning the reform proposals voiced by other Councillors, I would like to hear what they have in mind, as they might make a really well-written act worse trying to reform it.

Donald Tusk
Councillor for Spain

[BrumBrum]

I would support reforms allowing political parties in countries to join Eurogroups to share national expertise among each other and with European Councillours within the group as well as campaigning ideas with each other. This would help parties around the continent get more internationalist perspectives and learn from their peers in other countries .This would mean essentially having a councillours wing and party members wing .

I would also support having associate membership allowed for expert groups on issues to contribute to legislative ideas as long as they are not corporatist ones just putting forward a corporate agenda, things like involving people from professional sectors in a roundtable to propose law ideas to the legislators of the Eurogroups or parties that are members. This could be a regulated way for them to interact with the parties and the European Councillours while not corrupting the politicians and keeping them accountable. Any members of these round tables should be clearly disclosed to prevent corporatist lobbying however.

James Mizrachi-Roscoe , Councillor for United Duchies

[Istkalen]

If Eurogroups are to continue to exist, they must come to resemble, more or less, working groups around specific issues rather political parties. I refuse to allow any return to the terrible days of 2020 which I have read so much about, when there were endless, tiresome debates about hegemonic control of the EU by member-states whose ruling parties were - illegally - members of the EPA, or about trains, or about whatever bizarre grievances many of the Councillors of that time seemed to have.

I have proposed this repeal because I see no reason to believe Eurogroups will evolve in the direction I desire. Of course, if other Councillors, contrary to my own observations, are willing to support such a change, I would of course withdraw this repeal and work with them for genuine reform. But this, unfortunately, does not seem to be the case.

Iras Tilkanas
Council Speaker and Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

[BrumBrum]

While specific issue working groups are a good idea they cannot replace political cooperation groups fully. There are many councillors who would agree on many policy positions over many issues that are in alignment with a certain ideology or school of political thought, these councillors should be able to organise cooperation along such lines. Political parties are not the cause of division, if they were the Duchies would be one of the most divided, ungovernable nations in the union , yet it always finds ways to compromise while different groups work together on common issues and politicians come together on common issues. This can be achieved in the EU . As much as you may not like it some councillors will want to align on a more school of political thought alignment and the most efficient way to achieve this is to have Eurogroups that allow parties and national politicians as members for European level cooperation.

James Mizrachi-Roscoe , Councillour for United Duchies

[Istkalen]

When this practice, illegal as it was, was tolerated, there was no evidence of any cooperation. There is no record, as far as I can see, of illegal associate members of any Eurogroup having ever played a major role in European politics, except, perhaps, to issue endorsements.

National-level affiliations served, then, no practical purpose. They contributed nothing but division and chaos to the governance of the Union. Again, I will not allow the conditions of 2020 to resurrect themselves.

Iras Tilkanas
Council Speaker and Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

[California]

I like the idea of fluid working groups. Most of the time it seems like committing to one ideology is not ideal.

[BrumBrum]

@UK-and-California I would support working groups as an idea if they were not single issue but instead working on a broader set of issues. There is not point having a working group just for example mental health but one on broader progressive healthcare reforms may be a very valuable group. If it was to move to working groups it should be based on the type of policy and law not advocating for a single law as it would just result in many useless groups if you have many single issue groups.

James Mizrachi-Roscoe Councillor for United Duchies

[Istkalen]

I would like to issue an apology to the members of the EPA - no parties were illegally registered as associates. However, many members of member-states' ruling governments were, and this is what, I imagine, much of the nonsense-criticism of 2020 based itself on.

Iras Tilkanas
Council Speaker and Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

[Istkalen]

Given the interest in my proposed reform, I'd like to give you a rough outline of what it would entail.

We would see:

• Councillors, Commissioners, and candidates to either position able to be members of multiple Eurogroups at once
• the end of regulations on systems of internal decisionmaking
• the creation of a committee on which the chairmen of Eurogroups would sit in order to encourage collaboration
• the introduction of a fund from which groups of Councillors, which we could call committees, might request grants - perhaps up to 400 000 euros in a single year? - for the purpose of developing legislation.

While I don't want to see strictly partisan divisions between Eurogroups, there isn't really a legal way to prevent this; what I hope, then, is for my proposed system to, by inherent structure, discourage the formation of ideologically-based factions.

Iras Tilkanas
Council Speaker and Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen

[Istkalen]

I am withdrawing this repeal. I am sorry to do so, given the extent of our debate; however, I do not think that this has been an entirely fruitless endeavor. Many avenues for reform have been discussed; there is now a clearer path to a system of political groups that is genuinely beneficial to the formulation of policy.

I will be proposing a reform bill shortly.

Iras Tilkanas
Council Speaker and Councillor for the Republic of Istkalen