EU Parliament pushes to drag Member States before the EU Court over fast-track rearmament plan

Brussels – The European Parliament has not taken kindly to being sidelined in the legislative process on European rearmament. Following concerns expressed by Roberta Metsola to Ursula von der Leyen, which were politely returned to sender by the latter, today (24 June), the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) asked the Maltese president to take the matter to the EU Court of Justice.

According to parliamentary sources, the recommendation was approved with twenty votes in favour, none against and three abstentions. The vote took place behind closed doors. Now it is all in the hands of Metsola, who will have to decide whether to lodge an appeal against the EU Council, responsible for the proposed regulation for the creation of the SAFE Fund (Security Action for Europe), by 21 August. The appeal is not suspensive: should Metsola choose to proceed, the regulation—which received the final green light on 27 May—would continue to apply.

At the centre of the debate is the use of Article 122 TFEU, the legal basis chosen by von der Leyen last March to expedite SAFE’s legislative path and bypass parliamentary passage. The JURI committee had already unanimously adopted at the end of April a non-binding recommendation, in which, based on the opinion of the Parliament’s legal service, it argued that the urgency requirements for using the accelerated procedure were not met. The President of the European Commission, faced with the protests of the Parliament, had stated that “the purpose and content of the measure”—i.e. the “exceptional and temporary response to an urgent and existential challenge”—”fully” justified the choice of the procedure.

This is not the view of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group: “Putting aside democratic control is not a test of strong leadership, but a threat to the institutional balance of the Union,” reads a note from the progressive group. The problem is not with the merits of the measure: SAFE, which makes €150 billion in loans available to strengthen national defence industries, “is an important and necessary step to strengthen Europe’s defence capabilities.” It is rather the fact, as René Repasi, coordinator for S&D in the JURI committee, notes, that von der Leyen’s move “is part of a broader framework” and “a clear strategy of power consolidation within the executive.”

According to Repasi, “this is not an isolated case,” because “throughout President von der Leyen’s second term in office, parliament was treated less as a democratic partner and more as an obstacle, with decisions increasingly taken within narrow circles and democratic procedures regarded as mere formalities.”