Commission and MEPs to back new treaty mandate

The European Parliament and the European Commission are next week to give their formal backing to starting negotiations on a new reform treaty.

Both institutions insist that the deal agreed at the 21-22 June summit should not be reopened despite Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyn´ski calling into question the agreement on voting rules.

The Commission’s position on the intergovernmental conference (ICG), to be adopted on Tuesday (10 July), is expected to endorse the mandate for negotiation agreed at the summit. Commission President José Manuel Barroso said on Monday (2 July): "None of the issues agreed on can be opened up. We can’t do anything which contra-dicts what was agreed at the European Council."

Barroso’s comments were aimed at the Polish prime minister who has claimed that he received verbal assurances at the summit that contested EU decisions could be delayed for two years under a revised version of the Ioaninna compromise. The draft mandate says that if the mechanism is used agreement should be reached "within a reasonable period".

The Portuguese presidency has tried to play down suggestions that the summit deal is already unravelling. Prime Minister José Socrates said on Monday that there were only "misunderstandings" which needed clarification. "I don’t see any country which wants to question it [the mandate]," he said.

The European Parliament will adopt its opinion on the IGC on 11 July. A draft opinion by German Social Democrat MEP Jo Leinen, chairman of the constitutional affairs committee, welcomes the fact that the mandate for the ICG agreed at the summit "safeguards the substance of the constitutional treaty", including the single legal personality of the EU, the suppression of the pillars structure (different types of decision-making for different policy areas) and the shift to qualified majority voting and codecision with Parliament.

Leinen’s draft report points out that Parliament regrets that the concept of a single constitutional treaty, the symbols of the Union, an understandable classification of legal acts and a clear statement of the primacy of EU law will be dropped. It also expresses concern that the mandate allows an increasing number of member states to opt out of major provisions of the treaties which could lead to a weakening of the cohesion of the Union.

MEPs have proposed a number of amendments to the report which will be discussed in the constitutional affairs committee next Monday (9 July) and approved in the plenary. Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, chairman of the Eurosceptic Independence and Democracy group, is calling for referenda to be held in all member states. UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff wants to include language saying that the Parliament regrets that the entry into force of many of the treaty’s provisions has been delayed.

The Portuguese presidency will launch the IGC at the meeting of foreign ministers on 23 July and hopes to secure final approval on a treaty text at the informal summit in Lisbon on 18 October.

The European Parliament and the European Commission are next week to give their formal backing to starting negotiations on a new reform treaty.