Santer defends ‘strong’ Commission

Date: 17/10/1996

By Rory Watson

EUROPEAN Commission President Jacques Santer has warned that the Union faces anarchy and stagnation if EU governments insist on weakening the institution's authority.

“I would fight with all my strength to convince my partners in the Intergovernmental Conference that if they want to keep this political project of a European Union and do not want to paralyse it or dilute it into a free trade area, we need a strong Commission holding on to the totality of its powers,” said Santer.

In an interview with European Voice this week, Santer carefully avoided endorsing the view expressed by his colleague Marcelino Oreja, who has proposed that Commissioners should resign en masse if their exclusive right of legislative initiative is undermined.

But the Commission president made no secret of his opposition to those floating such an idea in the IGC negotiations.

“It is essential to keep the right of initiative. If you give the right of initiative to the Council of Ministers and to the European Parliament, we will slide into anarchy and total paralysis,” he warned.

Santer also made clear that he would like the holder of the Commission presidency to be given greater authority over his colleagues and their selection.

“You cannot take away from member states the right to nominate Commissioners, but perhaps there could be more consultation and co-decision on dividing up the portfolios,” he said.

“I am not complaining at the way the Commission works. On all big decisions we manage to get unanimity, which is often not easy to achieve. But if the president had more powers, perhaps decisions could be taken more quickly.”

Santer will set out his defence of the Commission's existing powers and executive role when he presents the institution's 1997 work programme to MEPs in Strasbourg next week.

The exercise will mark a break with tradition. Instead of tabling a long list of policy objectives from the Commission's 24 departments, the seven-page programme will focus on four major political priorities.

“I think we must concentrate on what is essential and on the political aspects of our programme, and not do what we did in the past when we presented a list of projects. We must give a political message to the Parliament and - via the Parliament - to the public, which is concerned about these problems,” explained Santer.

Heading the Commission's list will be the need for EU-wide action to promote economic growth and cut unemployment. Santer will argue that this should be accompanied by measures to develop the continent's unique social model and to strengthen the Union's role globally.

The final element of the Commission president's four-part message will be to stress the importance of adapting the Union to the future by successfully completing the IGC, tackling enlargement and preparing its future financing package.

Despite the set-back which Trans-European Networks (TENs) have suffered at the hands of EU governments, Santer is determined to press ahead with his 'confidence pact' and is looking for clear policy lines to emerge from the Dublin summit in December.

He will stress the need for action to help the Union's 17 million small and medium-sized enterprises, encourage vocational training and promote local initiatives.

Completion and consolidation of the internal market is another of the Commission's 1997 priorities.

The emphasis on the importance of Europe's social model will encompass not just environmental and consumer issues, but also the need for the Union to tackle the problems of drugs, international crime and illegal immigration.

The Commission wants to use the coming year to build up the Union's role on the international stage. Despite being the biggest donor of development aid and the largest trading power in the world, the EU often plays second fiddle to the US and is still struggling to construct a coherent common foreign and security policy (CFSP).

Santer believes that if the Union can strengthen its cooperation in justice and home affairs, develop an effective CFSP and implement his confidence pact, it will go a long way towards bridging the EU's credibility gap.

“There is this divide, especially in perception, between the Union and its citizens. I believe there are three reasons for this. They have lost confidence because they cannot see the Union doing anything to tackle unemployment. They do not understand why the EU is doing nothing in the Balkans, for instance. And they want action against drugs and organised crime. In all these areas, citizens are asking for more Europe, not less,” said Santer.