European Parliament votes for European army and EU centralisation

The European Parliament adopted the resolution, suggest creating an EU finance minister, an army and giving the EU Commission the power to formulate and give effect to a common EU economic policy, backed up by a euro-area budget.

The resolution by the EU Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt propose reducing the size of the College of EU Commissioners substantially, including by cutting the number of Vice-Presidents to two, and state their belief in allowing EU citizens in each member state to vote directly on the European political parties’ lead candidates for Commission President.

"We have to acknowledge that treaty change is not on the top of the political agenda now, in member states in particular," the vice-president of the EU Commission, Frans Timmermans, said.

The resolution was approved by 283 votes to 269 with 83 abstentions.