Report of the Group of Wise Men on the institutional implications of enlargement

On 1 September 1999 the President-designate of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, invited three distinguished Europeans - Jean-Luc Dehaene (former Prime Minister of Belgium), Richard von Weizsäcker (former President of the Federal Republic of Germany) and Lord Simon (former chairman of British Petroleum and Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK) to compile a report giving their independent views on the institutional implications of enlargement in view of the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), expected to be launched in March 2000.

The mandate of the group was to identify institutional problems which need to be tackled and to present arguments indicating why they needed to be dealt with by the IGC. It was not to make specific proposals: this would be the task of the Member States and of the EU Institutions, before and after the IGC.

The Group submitted its report to the European Commission on 18 October 1999 [http://europa.eu.int/igc2000 ]. It recommended that the IGC should go ahead and be completed by the end of the French EU Presidency (December 2000) and that it should be a substantial IGC, dealing with the key issues of:

• the number of Commissioners
• the issue of weighted voting in the Council
• the question of reaching decisions by qualified majority voting (QMV) instead of unanimity

The report also suggests the division of the present single Treaty into two: one covering the major provisions of the Treaty and the second the more minor provisions - and allowing for easier procedures for amending the text in the second Treaty. The report also suggests that the Western European Union (WEU) [ http://www.weu.int ] should be incorporated into the EU

The European Commission held a first discussion on the report on 20 October 1999 but stressed that the function of the report was purely to help the Commission in its own work on preparing for the IGC (Press Release (Commission), IP/99/778). The Commission will submit its own preliminary report to the Finnish EU Presidency in November 1999, while its formal proposals or avis will be presented at the beginning of the IGC in 2000. Commission President Prodi touched on the report in a speech he gave to the Economic and Social Committee on 20 October 1999 (Speech (Commission), SPEECH/99/134).

The European Parliament held a debate on the report on 27 October 1999: http://www.europarl.eu.int/dg3/sdp/journ/en/n9910271.htm#3

The European Commission issued a 'Commission contribution to the preparations for the Inter-Governmental Conference on institutional issues' on 10 November 1999: http://europa.eu.int/igc2000 and Press Release (Commission), IP/99/826 . Commission President Romano Prodi and EU Commissioner Michel Barnier spoke to MEPs in the European Parliament on 10 November 1999: http://www.europarl.eu.int/organs/confpres/en/verbatim.htm on the Commission report. The report deals with the policy issues and how the IGC should be approached in practical terms. In the Commission's view, the goals are to accommodate a large number of new Member States within the EU and stabilise the system of Community Institutions on a lasting basis. The Commission identifies three overarching issues:

• functioning properly with a large number of Member States
• avoiding watering down the Union
• continuing with the political construction of Europe.

The Commission proposes fives main areas for reform:

• decision-making
• revamping the Treaties
• representation of the Member States within the Council
• reform of the other Institutions
• the working methods of the Institutions

The United Kingdom House of Commons Library produced in May 1999 a substantial Research Paper 99/54 on 'Institutional reform in the European Union': http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-054.pdf , which touches upon many of the issues raised by the report of the Group of Wise Men.

Further information and reactions to the report can be seen in:

(long-term access to these links cannot be guaranteed)

European Voice: Governments pour cold water on call for far-reaching treaty reform)(Vol.5, No.38, 21.10.99) (text accessible through European Sources Online)

European Policy Centre: http://www.theepc.be/NORMAL/Challenge_Europe/Press_release/Dehaene.htm

European People's Party: http://www.europarl.eu.int/ppe/tree/press/pniew99/pniew51_en.htm

BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_478000/478381.stm

CNN: http://europe.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9910/18/eu.reforms.reut/index.html

The Guardian:

http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/eurocommission/Story/0,2763,93706,00.html

Irish Times: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/1999/1019/wor19.htm

International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/TUE/IN/brussels.2.html

Yahoo/Reuters: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991018/wl/eu_reforms_1.html

Links to a selection of non-English sources can be accessed via POLIS: http://www.polis.net/polis191099.html