‘Citizens are equal – but some states more equal than others’

Date: 22/05/03

By Dana Spinant

VALERY Giscard d'Estaing has broken one of the European Union's taboos by declaring: "EU member states are not equal, only citizens are."

The chairman of the Convention on Europe's future insisted during the forum's plenary session last week that member states should have "equivalent rights", but this did not mean they should be accorded equal status with their bigger cousins.

His remarks will be seen as a slap in the face for small member states, who are fighting an increasingly frenetic campaign to hang on to their powers within the EU institutions.

Giscard told Convention members that "the system" in the EU should be based on equality of citizens: "I am struck by how little we speak of citizens," he said.

Speaking to reporters later, he added: "You can speak of equality of citizens, that people are equal. But small states do not have the same economy, they do not pay the same contributions."

Remarks like that have met with a hostile response from the small states.

A Maltese representative on the Convention spoke of a "Lilliput complex, as large member states fear they would be overwhelmed by the small states in a Union of 25".

The clear implication behind Giscard's approach is that the balance of power in EU institutions should be modified to reflect demographic realities.

For instance, he wants the present qualified majority system in the Council of Ministers to be replaced by a clear-cut 'double majority' system, whereby decisions would be carried only when backed by both a majority of states and a majority of the EU population.

Under this, Germany, with a population of 82 million, would have a voting weight of 18, while Luxembourg, with 400,000 citizens, would receive a 0.01 share of the vote.

This is a marked difference from the present arrangements, brought in by the Nice Treaty, under which Germany has 29 votes in the Council from a total of 321 (8.4) while Luxembourg has four, representing 1.1.

With Giscard's logic, it also follows that Germany should have more MEPs than the 99 provided for at Nice: currently, Malta will get an MEP for every 80,000 citizens, whereas Germany will only get an MEP for every 830,000 citizens.

The Commission's composition would also be affected by the former French president's new mantra. If every country has a commissioner, the four big states accounting for half the Union's population would have only four of the 25 votes.

"The trouble with a large Commission [one commissioner per country] is that, as it decides by simple majority, commissioners representing less than 10 of the Union's population could carry decisions," a Convention official explained.

"The only way to avoid this is to break the one country-one commissioner link and to have a smaller [Commission] team," he added.

An insider close to Giscard said the "all states are equal" taboo must be broken if the Union is to be built on "sound political foundations".

"Malta is not as big as the UK or Germany, and does not pay the same amount of money to the EU budget either. How can you say they are equal? They are obviously not. But they should have equivalent rights," he said.

"But EU citizens are equals and that should be reflected in the composition of EU institutions. We will spell out in the constitution that the EU is a union of states and peoples. We should be serious about the people and not only prepare a Union of states," he added.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has suggested that only citizens share equal status in the EU, not Member States.