Commission sets out IGC stall

Date: 22/02/1996

By Rory Watson

A SYSTEMATIC erosion of national vetos and explicit recognition that some member states can forge ahead without the rest are crucial to the EU's future, the European Commission argues in its draft submission to the Intergovernmental Conference.

The proposals, contained in a 19-page internal policy paper, are due to be unveiled to MEPs next Wednesday (28 February) immediately after being endorsed by the full Commission as it lays out its platform for the approaching negotiations on the reform of existing EU treaties.

Supporters of such fundamental changes in the way the Union has conducted its business over the past four decades insist they are essential if any substantial increase in the current membership is not to lead to paralysis.

The paper, Strengthening Political Union and Preparing for Enlargement, warns that the difficulties involved in securing unanimous agreement rise exponentially as more countries become involved. “Unanimity is not conceivable in the perspective of a substantial enlargement,” it states categorically.

It throws down a second challenge to those governments opposing any major change in the status quo by insisting “the European Union must not be condemned to move forward at the speed of its slowest members”.

Flexibility, it says, is nothing new and is already practised by giving countries temporary exemptions or transition periods. It argues it should be possible for countries wishing to go further and faster than others in policy cooperation to be able to do so.

Certain EU activities, such as the single market and accompanying social and environmental policies, would have to be applied by all members. But under the draft Commission proposals, some members could go further than others on economic issues, foreign and security policy, defence and internal security.

Support for such flexibility is already emerging from France.

A leaked draft of the IGC strategy paper being prepared for French President Jacques Chirac indicates approval for the insertion of a general clause into the EU treaties enabling those countries wishing to strengthen cooperation to do so.

The Commission will press for the flexibility and majority voting principles to apply generally to the Union's external policy, but accepts that exceptions would have to be made when decisions involved military action or affected the essential and clearly defined interests of a member state.

In a bid to introduce greater coherence into EU foreign policy, it recommends that the country holding the rotating six-month presidency and the Commission should operate far more in tandem.

The draft opinion rejects the French idea repeated in the Elysée paper of appointing a Mr or Mrs Foreign Policy, but accepts that certain ad hoc tasks could be entrusted to specific personalities.

The Commission also recommends setting up an analysis unit to study foreign policy trends and help the Union anticipate and influence events outside its frontiers, rather than react to them as at present.

The paper under examination also repeats Commission President Jacques Santer's calls for an increase in his powers over his colleagues. It recommends his successor should be able to play a determining role in choosing members of the college and suggests that while each country should have no more than one Commissioner, the president should in future have the power not to accept a member from each country.

The Commission draws attention to the practical day-to-day impact of a Union of up to 27 members where meetings will take longer and more languages be spoken. It argues that the current cumbersome decision-making procedures should be reduced from over 20 to just three and agrees with MEPs that the European Parliament should have no more than 700 members.

It also accepts that there may need to be a change in the way member states' votes are weighted in the Council of Ministers.