Convention reflects on enlargement

Date: 10/04/03

By Dana Spinant

THE Convention on the future of the EU is set to revise the procedure for becoming a member of the Union but will stop short of softening the ratification requirement.

According to Article 44 of the draft constitutional treaty, presented by the Convention's praesidium on 4 April, accession of a new member will still have to be approved by all member states according to their national ratification procedures.

However, other options are set to be considered in the plenary session debate, on 24-25 April. An internal European Commission memo seen by this paper invites commissioners to reflect on whether the future treaty should only require ratification by a large majority of states or "ratification by the Union, after assent of a Congress [of Europe's peoples]", gathering members of the European Parliament and national parliaments.

The reason for replacing the unanimous endorsement currently required with acceptance by a majority is simple: in a Union with 27 or more members, the risk of an applicant state's accession being blocked by one parliament's failure to ratify rises exponentially.

A Convention insider warns that it will be highly unlikely that the ratification procedure will be modified: "It is a fundamental right of each member state to be able to oppose accession of a new state.

"You can't do that by qualified majority - you can't impose new members against the will of some states."

Moreover, the plan to create a Congress of Europe's peoples, an idea which Convention chairman Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is especially keen on, has been widely opposed by Convention members.

Article 43 of the draft treaty provides that eligibility to the Union is linked to respect of the EU's values. "The Union shall be open to all European states whose people share the values referred to in Article 2, and who respect them and are committed to promoting them together. Accession to the Union implies acceptance of its constitution," states the clause.

The Union's values, as spelled out in draft Article 2 of the Treaty, are "respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, values which are common to the member states".

However, the new procedure for applying for Union membership (spelled out in Article 44) introduces an early involvement of the European Parliament and of national parliaments. They should be notified as soon as the membership application is made.

The Convention on the future of the EU is set to revise the procedure for becoming a member of the European Union but will stop short of softening the ratification requirement.