Blueprint spells out risks of keeping veto

Date: 22/02/1996

By Rory Watson

A POLITICAL blueprint for the future of the Union to be approved by the European Commission next week would prevent any one country from blocking efforts by its partners to continue pooling their sovereignty.

The series of proposals includes a recommendation to abolish national vetos, not just in sensitive areas of policy formulation, but in any future exercise to rewrite the Union's basic treaties.

Failure to introduce these changes at the Intergovernmental Conference could halt the Union's progress and leave it irrevocably tied to the treaty which emerges from this round of negotiations.

The political statement largely put together by Commission President Jacques Santer and IGC Commissioner Marcelino Oreja will be presented to MEPs just weeks before they finalise their own input into the talks.

The Commission will reject any suggestion of an à la carte Europe when membership climbs above the current number of 15, but argues that countries with loftier policy ambitions should not be thwarted by a small minority.

Its proposals are likely to receive a warm response from the more integration-minded member states, such as Germany and the Benelux, and reflect some of the ideas now being explored in Paris. But they are bound to be criticised in the UK, which has vowed to resist the abolition of national vetos.