Giscard to unveil two-step plan to get foreign policy back on track

Date: 27/03/03

By Dana Spinant

VALERY Giscard d'Estaing, president of the Convention on the EU's future, is set to disappoint pro-integrationists by proposing a two-stage reform of the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Under the plans, qualified majority voting - seen as vital for a credible CFSP because it would end the frequent deadlock resulting from the current requirement for unanimity in Council of Ministers' decisions on foreign policy - would be widely used only after five or ten years.

The former French president feels that a "political scene clouded by clashes over Iraq is not propitious to ambitious changes", an official close to Giscard told European Voice.

EU leaders would, however, be free to decide to adopt majority voting earlier.

The two-step approach was successfully used to boost cooperation in another sensitive area, justice and home affairs (JHA), over five years from 1998.

"It worked for JHA, where those five years have been a psychological preparation for member state leaders to get used to the idea. It should also work for CFSP where, considering the greater political resistance, a longer transition period may be sensible," a French official at the Council said.

In the first phase of the proposed shake-up, institutional changes aimed at generating "more convergence" between member states' views on foreign affairs will be introduced. For instance, an external relations service would be created by pooling together European Commission and Council of Ministers' officials dealing with CFSP. This would be led by an external relations representative (or foreign minister) who would chair the External Relations Council.

"At present, [High Representative for Foreign Affairs Javier] Solana only enters the scene once there is a common position, to present it to the external world.

"His successor should help produce such a position," explained a Convention official.

In the second stage, the representative's role could be boosted to resemble more that of a foreign minister, who would shape CFSP and not just be there to facilitate the emergence of a common position.

The two-step reform idea is less ambitious than proposals presented to the Convention last December by its working group on external action. But the group's chairman, former Belgian premier Jean-Luc Dehaene, said he would not oppose phased changes.

"If we get an agreement on doing away with unanimity for most CFSP areas in, let's say, five years without having to change the treaty, why not? It is better than a vague pledge to do something in the future," he said.

Dehaene's group proposed that "in order to avoid CFSP inertia and encourage apro-active CFSP, maximum use should be made of existing provisions for the use of QMV [qualified majority voting], and of provisions allowing for some form of flexibility, such as constructive abstention".

Other Convention members agree that they will have to reduce their expectations. "The Iraq debacle is weighting heavy on our shoulders," said one praesidium member.

A Convention official said Giscard's two-step strategy tempered ambition with realism. "We must see what went wrong during this [Iraq] crisis. The institutional mechanisms provided for by the treaty were not respected.

"But there was also a lack of continuity and a lack of any effort to define the European interest on Iraq," he said.

In order to achieve greater continuity, Giscard will propose that the present rotating EU presidency be replaced with a stable presidency of the Council.

However, a Convention official warned that majority voting should not be seen as a "panacea".

"In the case of Iraq, neither France nor the UK could have obtained a majority of countries to support their position, as the Union was split down in the middle," he pointed out.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of the Convention on the European Union's future, is set to disappoint pro-integrationists by proposing a two-stage reform of the Common Foreign and Security Policy.