Passarelle

Treaty of Maastricht (Photo: European Commission)
A word meaning footbridge, referring to the possibility of either moving a policy area from the intergovernmental third pillar to the supra-national first pillar, or changing the voting rules in the council or the extension of the article's scope of application.

Using these articles require unanimity among all the governments, but not difficult treaty amendment and ratification procedures that would require the approval of national Parliaments and/or by a national referendum.

Until now all passerelles have had a specific purpose.

The Future

The draft Constitution (art. I-24.4), proposes the introduction of two general passarelles. The first passerelle makes it possible changing the procedure for adopting laws and framework laws from a special legislative procedure to the ordinary legislative procedure for policy areas in part III of the Constitution. The second passerelle makes it possible to move from unanimity voting to qualified majority voting in the Council for policy areas in part III of the Constitution. Using these articles will require unanimity amongst the governments but no national ratification.