Author (Person) | Bower, Helen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series Title | In Focus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series Details | 24.4.03 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publication Date | 24/04/2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The battle for power within the future European Union got underway on 22 April 2003 when Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the President of the Convention on the Future of Europe, outlined his ideas on the EU's future institutional architecture, to the Convention's Praesdium. The debate on institutional reform is expected to be the most controversial of all the Convention's discussions as representatives of the EU institutions and of the smaller and larger Member States share different views on the way power should be distributed in the future, although all agree that institutional reform is needed if an enlarged EU of twenty-five or more Member States is to operate successfully. Under Giscard d'Estaing's proposals, the current rotating presidency of the Council would be replaced by the creation of a new post of President of the European Council who would serve for between two and a half years and five years. The President's main duties would be to represent the EU internationally and to chair meetings of the European Council. In an effort to appease the smaller EU Member States who fear that an EU president would favour the larger Member States Giscard d'Estaing also proposed the role of a Vice-President to support the work of the President, however this was rejected by the Convention's Praesdium. In addition to the proposal for a permanent 'EU President' the Praesidium agreed on the following proposals to be presented to the Convention's plenary session on 24 April 2003:
Another of the President's proposals to create a Council bureau whose function would be to help co-ordinate the Union's activities has been 'downgraded' from a proposal to an 'option up for discussion'. Giscard d'Estaing had envisaged a seven member bureau - including the EU foreign minister and two EU leaders - which would support the EU President, however it is feared that this could become a rival executive to the European Commission. Reaction to the proposals has been mixed. Whilst France and UK welcomed the proposal for a permanent EU President, Germany seemed far more tentative and many of the smaller Member States have openly expressed their opposition to the idea, fearing it would sway the pendulum of power too much towards the larger Member States. Having already expressed this view at the Informal European Council in Athens on 16 April 2003, where 18 of the 25 current and future members of the Union rejected the idea of a permanent president, some Member States accused the Convention of 'selective listening'. The European Commission also vehemently criticised the President's proposals, arguing that the emphasis on intergovernmentalism threatened to:
The European Commission added that the proposals appeared to go against previous discussions in the working groups and at the Athens summit and were therefore 'unlikely to foster the development of a consensus on these difficult institutional issues'. European political parties also spoke out against the proposals. Elmar Brok, Chairman of the European People's Party group at the European Convention, rejected them outright saying:
Formal reactions from the Member States and other EU institutions are expected after the proposals are debated at the Convention's Plenary session on 24 April 2003. With less than two months left before the Convention is due to present a draft constitutional treaty to the Summer European Council, the debate on institutional reform is likely to dominate the agenda.
Helen Bower Compiled: Thursday, 24 April 2003 On 22 April 2003 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the President of the Convention on the Future of Europe, outlined his ideas on the EU's future institutional architecture, to the Convention's Praesdium. |
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Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations |
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