Commission on collision course with Giscard over EU president

Date: 05/12/02

By Dana Spinant

THE European Commission is heading for a clash with leaders of large member states and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, chairman of the Convention on the future of the EU, by firmly rejecting plans for a president of the Union.

In a radical blueprint on EU reform to be unveiled today (5 December), the Brussels executive instead calls for a more powerful Commission president, elected by the European Parliament and confirmed by the heads of state and government.

In return, the College would make itself politically accountable to the European Council - giving it the power to bring the Commission down.

The proposals, the main points of which were first unveiled by European Voice (31 October - 6 November), are already being fiercely opposed by key EU leaders.

In a landmark speech in Cardiff last Thursday (28 November), British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted 'there has to be a fixed chair of the European Council'.

He claimed that the existing rotating presidency, where a different country takes over responsibility for coordinating EU business every six months, cannot work for a Union of 25 members or more.

Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister who sits on the Convention, reiterated on Monday that France wants an EU president.

The Commission, however, would prefer to keep the rotating presidency, albeit in a modified form. The present system would work for the presidency of the European Council and general affairs council, it believes. However, it proposes that for other Council formations, a minister be elected chairman for a one-year term.

'There is already a president in Brussels and this is the Commission's president,' a Commission official told this paper.

The proposal that the Commission assumes political accountability before the European Council is highly controversial, because it would mean both the Parliament (as is the case now) but also heads of state and government would be able to sack the Commission.

Former Belgian commissioner Karel van Miert has warned this move would mean 'the end of the Commission' as it would jeopardise its independence.

However, advisors close to Commission President Romano Prodi claim that political accountability is the only means of ensuring that the EU executive enjoys 100% trust from member states' leaders - and will continue to play a pivotal role in an enlarged Union.

The blueprint also proposes giving the Parliament the right to choose the candidate for Commission president, while the European Council would only confirm him/her. That would reverse the present procedure, which leaves the choice to the heads of state and government.

However, de Villepin is sceptical about this plan, as 'this would move the centre of gravity of EU institutions'.

Prodi's team also calls for the Commission to be given power to make legislative proposals in foreign policy and in the coordination of economic policies - areas from which it has been largely kept away so far.

The Commission should also be able to punish member states that infringe EU law, the paper states.

In another radical suggestion, the Commission calls for a proportion of MEPs to be elected via European lists to break the present national barriers to European political debate.

Although the Commission paper is being opposed by large EU states such as the UK, France and Spain, it is likely to be supported by Germany and a majority of small states.

The European Commission is heading for a clash with leaders of large Member States and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, chairman of the Convention on the future of the EU, by firmly rejecting plans for a president of the Union.