The European Parliament,

–having regard to the Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, signed on 13 December 2007,

–having regard to its resolution of 20 February 2008 on the Treaty of Lisbon[1],

–having regard to its resolution of 7 May 2009 on the Impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the development of the institutional balance of the European Union[2],

–having regard to the opinions of the European Economic and Social Committee of 8-9 July 2015[3] and of the Committee of the Regions of 16 September 2015[4],

–having regard to Rule 52 of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the report of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the opinions of the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control (A8‑0000/2016),

A.whereas the European Union and its Member States are facing major challenges, which no Member State can tackle on its own;

B.whereas the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty have not yet been exploited to their full potential; whereas some proposals can only be fully realised by Treaty change, emphasising a two-step approach to EU reform (within and beyond the Treaties);

C.whereas the Community method must be preserved and not be undermined by intergovernmental solutions, not even in areas where not all Member States fulfil the conditions for participation;

D.whereas the European Parliament is the parliament of the whole Union and plays an essential role in ensuring the legitimacy and accountability of EU decisions;

E.whereas political dialogue between national parliaments and the European Parliament should be enhanced and practical possibilities for the use of the ‘yellow’ and ‘orange card’ improved;

F.whereas the European Council’s working methods should be rendered more transparent vis-à-vis Parliament and its interference in legislative decision-making should remain within the limits of the Treaty provisions;

G.whereas in order to create a genuine bi-cameral legislative system, the existing specialised Council configurations should be reduced to a single legislative one, and the transparency of its decision-making should be improved;

H.whereas the Commission’s role as the executive should be strengthened in the field of Economic and Monetary Policy by the creation of the position of EU Finance Minister, assisted by an EU Fiscal and Treasury administration, and by endowing it with the powers to implement and enforce any future and existing Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) instruments;

I.whereas the European Institutions and bodies, notably the Committee of the Regions (CoR), the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), and, especially, the European Parliament should, in their daily work, monitor respect for, and the development of, horizontal and vertical subsidiarity in the European Union;

J.whereas the existing economic governance system is not yet strong enough to tackle all potential future crises and shocks as it should, nor is it yet sufficiently good at generating higher competitiveness, structural convergence among its members, sustainable growth and social cohesion; whereas, therefore, progress towards the completion of the EMU should be sustained, as well as efforts to render its institutional structure more legitimate and democratically accountable;

K.whereas the Fiscal Compact should be incorporated into the EU legal framework on the basis of an assessment of experience with its implementation;

L.whereas the institutional structure of the EMU should be transformed into an effective and democratic economic government, with Parliament and Council acting as equal co-legislators, the Commission fulfilling the role of the executive, national parliaments scrutinising national governments, the European Parliament scrutinising the EU level of decision-making, and the Court of Justice having control over all aspects of EMU enshrined in the Treaties;