‘Core state groups’ to come under fire

By Dana Spinant

Date: 12/01/06

The European Parliament will urge member states to resist proposals for creating core groups of states that press ahead with greater European integration.

In a report to be debated on Wednesday (18 January), on the future of the EU following the rejection of the European constitution by France and the Netherlands last year, MEPs will criticise "any suggestions that coalitions of certain member states should be formed outside the EU system".

This provision is one of the most controversial elements of the report, which calls for wide-ranging debates on the future of Europe across the member states. French members of the Parliament have tried to remove this paragraph on a two-speed Europe, or at least to water it down.

French President Jacques Chirac is a fervent supporter of the idea - on 10 January, Chirac told the French diplomatic corps that "in the spirit of what I called the pioneer groups, all states that want to act together must be able to do it, in a complementary way to the common policies or co-operation engaged at 25". He said that such a core group could be formed around the Eurogroup of states which have adopted the single currency. "The members of the eurozone have a natural vocation to deepen their political, economic, fiscal and social integration. France, with the interested partners, wants to examine all the possibilities to enhance the visibility and the weight of the eurozone."

German MEP Jo Leinen, the chairman of the constitutional affairs committee, said that Parliament "remained loyal to the big Europe, not to the smaller Europe".

"There is an anxiety that Chirac wants to escape the constitutional debate at 25. He is giving up the big project and pushes forward the small project," Leinen said.

He added that the core-Europe proposal could also be a way for Chirac to alleviate fears of EU enlargement, which played an important part in the rejection of the EU constitution in France in May 2005. "The plan is also a way of reducing the concern about the large Europe in France. It would create a rich men's club where more political integration and solidarity is promoted and a larger economic zone around it. The current EU would be this larger economic area."

He said that Germany's reaction to Chirac's core-Europe proposal had been cool. But Chirac's keenest ally is Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who has called for a 'United States of Europe' with the members of the Eurogroup. Verhofstadt asked Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, whose country holds the EU presidency, to convene a meeting of the eurozone countries to discuss the future of Europe.

But Schüssel rejected the plan. Speaking after a meeting with the members of the European Commission in Vienna on 9 January, Schüssel said: "I think the...debate should include everybody, we should not start with a point saying this is restricted to a specific group." European Commission President José Manuel Barroso also dismissed the idea: "Please avoid a new division in Europe over institutions, what we do not need is a new cleavage," he said.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the eurozone, has pooh-poohed plans for a core-Europe. He told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir that it would be a mistake to launch a closer co-operation around the eurozone without having a strong political programme among the members. "It would be a mistake just to do it to impress the others," he said.

Article anticipates the debate at the European Parliament of an own-initiative report, entitled 'The period of reflection: the structure, subjects and context for an assessment of the debate on the European Union', scheduled for 18 January 2006. The report was drafted by Austrian Green Johannes Voggenhuber and UK Liberal Andrew Duff and rejects calls from French President Jacques Chirac and others, for closer co-operation among Member States in terms of a core-Europe or a two-speed Europe.

European Parliament: Legal Observatory: INI/2005/2146, The period of reflection: the structure, subjects and context for an assessment of the debate on the European Union http://europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5261822

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