We are living through fatal times for optimists who, against all odds, defend that the European Union is not as complicated as it seems, that it is due to ignorance more than anything else that almost no one understands how its institutions make decisions. Explaining what a trilogue is – the word that you will read these days in many European chronicles –, how they work and what they are for is a task that can leave the most fervent Europeanist exhausted and without arguments.
Because how can we justify that months of negotiations on a legal text between the Commission, the Council (the Governments) and the European Parliament are finally resolved by locking several dozen people in a room, theoretically isolated from the world to avoid interference from governments or pressure groups, under threat of not leaving there, until they reach an agreement? Complicated, very complicated. One might think that it is an invention of the French fiction series ‘Parlament’, but it is not.
Is it possible that the EU hammers out the details of its directives and regulations in meetings that may last 20 hours, that exhaustion and sleep deprivation end up being something akin to a negotiating technique, as if the winner will be the one who What better arguments does he have than the last one standing? It is possible, and the record is at 1,800 minutes almost without pause, with negotiations on emissions permits now a year ago. The mark could be beaten by the negotiators of the European law on artificial intelligence, who yesterday stopped the clock after 22 hours of negotiations and will meet first thing today to close the agreement.
These days, the community capital hosts trilogues beyond the human capacities of some of its protagonists and observers, including correspondents. It is the particular nightmare before Christmas every year in Brussels, aggravated this year because Spain holds the rotating presidency of the Council this semester and, to make matters worse, the legislature is approaching its end, so it is urgent to finish processing dozens of proposals. We know when they start but not when they end: yesterday, for example, one started at eight in the morning on one of the most important initiatives of the current legislative cycle, the new European Migration Pact, and at the time of writing these lines we have not returned to it. have news of its protagonists, probably not in their homes either. Others, however, such as the rules on energy savings in buildings, came to fruition at dinner time (Spanish).
The advantage is that now the loved ones of the negotiators can take a look at social networks to see how they are coping. The Vice President of Values ??and Transparency, Vera Jourová, as well as the Internal Market Commissioner’s team, Thierry Breton, for example, published throughout the night yesterday evidence of life, I mean updates on the situation in the negotiating room regarding the new law on artificial intelligence. The unwritten rules of trilogues state that their protagonists must maintain the secrecy of the negotiations at all times, which makes it especially difficult for journalists to understand what is happening or where things are going to go when hallelujah! At some point someone will pronounce or tweet the four most desired words in Brussels – we have an agreement – ??which someone probably disheveled and rheumy will come out to explain at some point.
As difficult as it may be to believe, the grueling trilogues, a format that is not described in any European treaty, were invented a few years ago to save time and replace the traditional slow process of the first and second readings of the European Parliament on the texts agreed by the Council, when the institution began to have codecision power in practically all matters. Every line, every word matters. If you give in on one side to please some, you often have to compensate on the other so that everyone is happy, as the Spanish presidency of the Council is proving these days.
The text that emerges from these negotiations must be able to be ratified, without discussion, separately, by both institutions, so in reality there is little room to move: the current presidency (Spain until December 31) defends the position that the governments and the speakers of the European Parliament have previously agreed upon, the same. But the trilogues are the last final opportunity to extract concessions or consolidate achievements, and everything is presented in epic, almost pugilistic terms: there is talk of fights between institutions, of conquests, of defeats… In the end, however, in a miracle worthy of Christmas, in general there are neither winners nor losers, the EU wins and everyone celebrates the result equally, united under the brightness of the European stars, toasting with plastic cups among remains of junk food forgotten in the corners.
