German leaders call for reforms in EU after Brexit

Senior German officials have called for changes to decision-making processes in the EU after Britons decided to leave the bloc in a shocking referendum.

Last week, a newspaper said post-Brexit concerns have prompted EU leaders to draw up a controversial plan aimed at morphing the remaining member states into a giant “superstate.”

On Sunday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged the bloc to take an “intergovernmental approach” in dealing with problems when they see that the European Commission does not tackle the issues.

“If the Commission doesn’t get involved, then we should take the matter into our own hands and solve problems between governments," he said in an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.  

Schaeuble criticized the EU for taking too long to make decisions on the refugee crisis last year, while denying that he aimed at weakening the European Commission.  

“I’m just saying that it and we need to be more pragmatic and faster,” he said.

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel questioned the size of the EU budget and called on the bloated bloc to scale back on unnecessary bureaucracy.

In an interview with the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper, Gabriel also called on Brussels to slash unaccountable and unselected commissioners.

“A Europe in which 27 Commissioners want to prove themselves doesn't make sense. It would be good to downsize in this respect,” he said, accusing the union of “petty” involvement in issues that could be better dealt by municipalities or states.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz, also a German, said that the commission should be changed into “a real European government” operating under the supervision of the European Parliament.

He also said that a second chamber, made up of representatives of 27 member states, should further control the commission.

Schulz said EU members should start cooperating on joint defense projects, echoing last July remarks of EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker who called for the creation of a united European army.

According to a scheme leaked to Polish news channel TVP Info, EU members would be morphed into a single superstate based on three crucial areas -- internal and external security, the refugee crisis and economic cooperation.

Under the plan, the rights to have army, criminal law, central bank and taxation system would be taken from the member states and transferred to Brussels.

The member states would also lose what few controls they have left over their own borders for admitting and relocating refugees, according to the plan.

British people voted recently to leave the European Union, raising concerns among the bloc’s leaders that rising anti-EU sentiments among citizens would cause similar moves across the continent.

The bloc's leading countries have scrambled to restrict fallout from the decision and take measures to keep the union from falling apart.

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