Bid to seek alternative as dual presidency gets hostile reaction

Date: 23/01/03

By Dana Spinant

THE Convention on the future of the EU encountered its first political crisis with the massive rejection this week of the Franco-German plan for a dual presidency to run the Union.

The debate on distribution of power in a reformed EU has pitched France, Germany, UK and Spain into a headlong battle with the other member states.

It also sparked the first passionate exchanges in the Convention itself - applause or jeering accompanied most of the speeches.

However strong the rejection of the Franco-German plan for power to be divided between an elected president of the European Council and a European Commission president, no single project emerged as an alternative.

Opponents of the Franco-German plan are split between supporters of a single European president, chairing both the Commission and the European Council, those backing the status quo (rotating presidencies), and a few supporters of a reformed rotation scheme based on longer- term 'team' presidencies.

Behind the scenes, representatives of the smaller member states, the fiercest foes of the Franco-German plan, tried to mount a united front to dismantle the idea of an EU president, synonymous for them with a stitch-up by the big states, resulting in government by directoire.

Commission President Romano Prodi and Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt, together with the Convention's Liberal caucus, pledged to look into solutions to counter the Franco-German plan. British MEP Andrew Duff, one of the foremost advocates on the Convention floor of a federalist vision, has been tasked with drafting an alternative proposal.

However, the opponents of the Franco-German approach have widely different ideas as to what is workable for the future enlarged EU or what could provide a realistic compromise with the four big states.

For Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, the idea of a single EU president heading both the Commission and the European Council is "the only viable alternative".

This proposal, paradoxically supported by Joschka Fischer, German foreign minister, has gathered significant backing in the Convention. Proposed for the first time by the French parliament representative Pierre Lequiller last September, the idea appealed to Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, and to other senior Christian Democrat politicians in Europe.

Lamberto Dini, the former Italian foreign affairs minister, believes such a "president of Europe" could coordinate the two branches of the Union's executive (the Commission and the Council).

He or she would also help install "equilibrium and not conflict" between the EU institutions, Dini said on Monday.

Prodi is also unsurprisingly a fan of this plan, which would put his successor in the driving seat in the European Council. The Commission leader warns that the election of a European Council president would lead to a 'cohabitation' which would paralyse the Union's decision-making.

However, many in the Convention question the wisdom of such a double role for the Commission's president: would the Commission's president take over the European Council or would the European Council extend its control over the Commission?

A number of big-hitters in the Convention see a major reshuffling of the Commission as the key to a new institutional set-up in the EU.

Jean-Luc Dehaene, vice-president of the Convention, and Louis Michel say that giving large states more powers within the Commission (by changing its composition to their advantage) would boost their trust in the EU executive. The large states would accept granting more powers to the Commission over foreign affairs, defence, and justice and home affairs if their influence within the institution was improved. For Michel, this would be a way of convincing large states to accept that the president of the Commission chairs the European Council too.

However, the Commission would have to resemble more the board of the European Central Bank (where large states have guaranteed posts) than the present college.

On the other hand, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Greece, Finland, Ireland and Malta insist on maintaining the present rotating presidency.

Other small countries' representatives in the Convention want to reshuffle the present system in order to allow team or shared presidencies to take over the Union's reins for a longer period. One idea floated is that a team of three countries could be at the EU's helm for 18 months instead of the current six-month term.

The Convention on the future of the EU has encountered its first political crisis with the massive rejection of the Franco-German plan for a dual presidency to run the European Union.