SARKOZY’S VISION OF TREATY CHANGE FOR THE EU

According to Sarkozy, the debate over Brexit is an opportunity to re-found Europe. "The peoples’ disengagement vis-à-vis Europe is a major concern for all [EU] countries. There is a need for deeply re-founding the European project. And that will go via a [new] Treaty that France must initiate from the summer of 2017."

1. The priority will be to lay the foundations of a Schengen II and to create a euro-Schengen, that is to say a government of Schengen comprised of the Interior Ministers of the [participating] Member States, with a stable President, who would have authority over [the EU’s border agency] Frontex. Joining Schengen II will imply the prior adoption of a common migration policy, notably including the harmonisation of social benefits granted to asylum seekers in order to avoid social tourism.
2. France and Germany must ensure the leadership of the Eurozone. A real economic government is needed, notably with the creation of a Secretary General who would be a real Director of the European Treasury in order to favour the coordination of Eurozone Member States’ economic policies. We also need the ESM [the Eurozone’s bailout fund] to become a European Monetary Fund.
3. There is need to repatriate certain EU powers. As regards the EU at 28, it deals with too many [policy] areas. It must focus on the functioning of the internal market, on ten or so priority policies (agriculture, energy, trade, etc.) – all the rest must be returned to the sovereignty of [Member states].

What Sarkozy is showing is a long-term vision of what a modern and refreshed European Union could look like. Sure, it is HIS vision only, but so far no other European leader or politician has come with anything new to offer to make the EU work. In the contrary, all the discussions and speeches from all sides of the political spectrum have been full of the same old rhetoric: “We must change the EU”, “We must reform the EU”, “We need a new project”, “Brexit must be a wake-up call for us all”, etc. The only alternative voices and comments we have heard  have come from nationalists and far-right political parties across Europe, the likes of Nigel Farage, UKIP and Marine Le Pen, claiming victory and wishing for only one thing: The end of the European Union as soon as possible.
No one has come with a plan to move the EU forward. No one, but Nicolas Sarkozy.

The new treaty would mean that the European Union would be:
- Reforming the Schengen passport-free movement zone;
- Restricting the European Commission’s privileges;
- Integrating the Eurozone further;
- Stopping the EU membership talks with Turkey.

The very fact that Nicolas Sarkozy has come with a plan - a rare thing for politicians nowadays, it seems (sic) - that would modernise and make the European Union more relevant and that could also accommodate Britain to the point it could eventually decide to stay in the EU is an important occurrence. Again, he is the first and only major European figure to have come with a plan!

Sarkozy’s vision for the EU has nearly been unreported in the French media. There is a reason for that: The French are far less interested in the British exit from the EU than in the issues of immigration, the fight against terrorism or the recent increase of the unemployment rate.

The power of decision in the new EU would not be the usual French-German couple any longer, but a French-British-German trio. Theresa May would be regarded as the woman who saved the honour of Britain in face of an expected Brexit chaos and would easily win the General Elections in 2020 with a large majority in the House of Commons.