If someone asked continental citizens to choose an image, a moment, that in their opinion represented and symbolized what the European Union is and how it works, it is most likely that the majority would opt for a photo or video of a great summit.. One of those long Eurogroups or European Councils, a sleepless night with ministers or heads of State and Government fighting against the clock to rescue a partner, an aid fund or the details of climate or energy policies. But if that same question were asked to any of the regulars in the Brussels bubble, from officials to lobbyists to politicians, possibly the answer would be another, a very logical one but indecipherable for hundreds of millions of people: a trilogue.
It is no secret that the European Union works in complicated ways. The system, unique in the world, does not resemble that of local, regional or national governments, making it inaccessible. There are many institutions, many languages, many processes and their own jargon that rarely permeates even the street.. There is an inevitable part, because bringing representatives of 27 countries, with extremely different institutions, traditions, legal systems and practices, to agreement requires an extraordinary exercise of sophistication, flexibility, pragmatism and originality. But that complexity, opacity and distance is also the result of decades and decades of sought-after hermeticism.
The EU rises not only on the ashes of the Second World War, but also on the resentments, hatreds and prejudices matured over centuries. The first steps were economic, commercial, and technical in nature.. And since the model worked, it remained. That meant slow decisions, thinking and rethinking everything.. And also avoid light and stenographers at all costs. Resolve things behind closed doors, between ambassadors, between ministers.
Today's Union, in its configuration, its Treaties, its decision-making process and the adoption of acquis, is the result of those decades of expansion, growth, deepening, integration and patches. There is a Parliament, there are legal texts similar to a Constitution, and bodies such as the College of Commissioners that are somewhat reminiscent of a Council of Ministers.. But in practice, day-to-day life has little to do with it.
And trilogues are the best way to understand from the inside how sausages are made. They are technically informal, but absolutely essential. They are the logical evolution in the face of a political need. They receive very little media attention, little recognition, they are also opaque, technical. But they are the cogs that keep the European legislative machinery running.. These are the formats in which negotiations are carried out in secret, much more than at the level of ministers or heads of state, for days and nights by percentages, commas and adjectives.. But also where everyone, officials and seasoned politicians, trying all kinds of tricks, sharpen their knives and do everything possible to scratch something.
Legislative initiative
In the EU, the legislative initiative lies with the European Commission. It is the one with the bulk of the technical staff, with 30,000 specialist officials in all fields. They are the ones who shape the directives or regulations that are later approved by the commissioners.. From there, that idea, that proposal, begins to take shape.. The vast majority of Union legislation is adopted by the so-called ordinary legislative procedure, also known by its previous name: codecision procedure.. It is the main one and gives equal weight to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
When a text comes out of the Commission's presses, a first reading takes place, in which the European Parliament studies it and can introduce amendments.. The Council (that is, the ministers of the 27 in each of their formats, depending on the topic) reviews the text retouched by Parliament. If you accept it without further ado, the procedure ends. If they don't agree, and on important issues they never agree, the action begins.
“Getting a mandate from Parliament is an arduous and complex task, in which you have to reconcile the priorities of MEPs from 27 countries and seven different political groups, each with different national interests and ideological approaches.. And when it is achieved, we are barely halfway through the process. There remains an almost as complex path for the Council, with 27 other governments from 27 countries, with their different national realities and political visions.. This is a true inter-institutional jeopardy. All this explains why the negotiations take so long, but it guarantees that when an agreement is reached, its foundations are solid and consensual,” explains former minister José Ignacio Zoido, negotiator of the European People's Party for the Control Regulation within the Pact. of Migration and Asylum.
“Having been on both sides of the negotiating table, I believe it is necessary to listen more to the other side, to have more realistic and less maximalist positions, which allow for more pragmatic agreements to be reached and which can be agreed upon more quickly.”
Every five years the European Parliament renews its seats and it may happen, as in this legislature, that more than 70% of the deputies are rookies. This inevitably has an effect on negotiations, especially in the early stages.. The European Commission and the Council have very experienced officials, with decades of similar procedures behind them. That's why it's not just the format that matters, but the character, the experience, the resources.. “Trilogues did not exist before, they have been a necessity, the key meeting for everything to work. And they depend a lot on who leads from Parliament. The normal thing is that they are the rapporteurs of a file, or rapporteurs, but many times the presidents of each of the Parliament's committees are in charge, especially if there is something important or there is a political weight to add,” explains Adrián Vázquez, head of the Ciudadanos delegation and also president of the Legal Affairs Commission. “I usually let the speaker carry the weight, but if he deviates from the mandate and at that moment other shadows are not present [which is how members of other parties that participate in that same negotiation are known] I intervene to direct or remind him that the mandate is such and cannot be deviated. There are times when some try to put in there, at the last moment, what they couldn't before due to the appropriate procedures, so you have to be very attentive,” he adds.
Codecision system
This codecision system, now commonplace, has been refined over time but critics say it is a staged trick. Governments negotiate with deputies, who are often from the same parties as the ministers. Typically, the Council tries to soften or dilute the Commission's proposals or ambitions, and Parliament pulls in the opposite direction.
“In the trilogues you represent all the visions of Parliament and you try to find a point of balance, which is what is complicated. You never negotiate something that openly goes against the interests of your country and ideology, but there are many margins for negotiation. We have a lot of freedom, but we have to find a balance between rich and poor, north and south, left and right, but it always works out,” highlights socialist Eider Gardiazabal, who has been the representative of the chamber in some of the toughest budget negotiations.. “What we want never comes out completely because there are always budget problems. We have an ambitious European vision, but the ministers of the countries explain to you that their margin is minimal and although they could agree…. All budget disputes, annual ones or financial framework disputes that are for seven years, are always the most frustrating, long and tiresome.. But then a pandemic arrives and 750,000 million euros come out for a fund because everyone understands that we must act.”
Gardiazabal, a veteran, rules out that Parliament always gives in or that it is destined to lose, since in the majority of cases of bigger files, or a lot of money, the Council presses to lower the ambitions. “I don't see it that way. When looking for positions we also already know where the Council is going to go, it is a game of balance. It is easier for us to be more ambitious than for governments and we are aware, so we counterbalance national desires and wills.. If we weren't there, it's the EU that would lose,” he adds.
Vázquez agrees with this, who before becoming a deputy worked for years in Parliament. “Many times we put in things that we know are impossible, that are unfeasible, because the Council will ask for the opposite and thus we can meet halfway. The idea is to shoot for the moon, aim for the moon, and then they will come with the sales, and trying to scratch when the Council brings out the steamroller is difficult,” he admits.. From his years of experience in Brussels, and in trilogues, he leaves two pieces of advice. “The first is to play with time. When the Council presses because it is in a hurry, we have to play with the agenda and delay. The second is to know that he who resists wins.. In the trilogues do not drink a lot of water. “Drink little and eat lightly, because there are many hours, a lot of stress, and if you have to get up to go to the bathroom and if there is no break, they can sneak it in doubled.”