10 Elections. A history of the European Parliament at the ballot box (1979-2024) June 2024 | Page 85

project ). French President , François Mitterrand , initially committed his support for this , although he would later withdraw his backing , in favour of an intergovernmental approach
Since then , some innovative proposals from that draft were included in subsequent treaties ( Single European Act , Maastricht , Amsterdam , Nice , Lisbon ). Other high-quality proposals , however , have remained in the European archives , owing to the hostility of governments who consider themselves the ‘ masters of the Treaties ’ and the requirement for unanimous national ratification for every revision .
Among the core proposals from the Spinelli project that have been taken up in subsequent Treaties are :
• the division of competencies between the European Union and the Member States ;
• a genuine foreign and security policy that includes defence ;
• the extension of majority voting in the Council of the EU and the limited role of the European Council ,
• fiscal and budgetary powers of Parliament , along with the power of legislative initiative when there is no intervention by the Commission ;
• a European electoral law ;
• an effective mechanism for upholding the rule of law ;
• the governmental role of the Commission ;
• a constitutional method to enable a majority of countries to continue on the path of ever closer union ;
• an ad hoc procedure to supplement the treaties with constitutional laws passed by a double qualified majority in the Council and Parliament .
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