Europe’s leaders heading for “mother-of-all institutions row”

Date: 19/12/02

By Dana Spinant

EU HEADS of state and government are preparing to start crucial negotiations on the issue at the heart of the future of Europe debate - how power should be distributed between the institutions.

They have asked Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, chairman of the Convention, to present a report outlining the options at their next summit in Brussels in March.

On the basis of his report, the leaders will hold their first proper negotiations on the issue, then offer their recommendations to the Convention.

However, some members fear this could smack of a "top-down approach" which might pre-empt the work of the Convention.

"If the bosses send their wish list to the Convention, what are we, Convention members, going to do? Just find technical formulae to put in practice what the heads of state decide?

"Why call a Convention then? We could have done it with an intergovernmental conference," one member of the forum said.

However, others urge realism. "It is clear that whatever the Convention discusses, if the heads of state do not agree with, it is a lost cause.

"Why not check their views on this at an early stage?" a senior official remarked.

Giscard d'Estaing gave EU leaders a 90-minute briefing at the Copenhagen summit about the current state of the play in terms of the Convention's work.

According to one official present, they stressed the necessity of reinforcing all three institutions involved in legislative decision-making in Brussels.

The leaders warned against strengthening one institution while weakening the other two and insisted on preserving the institutional balance.

However, that doesn't mean they are all singing from the same hymn sheet.

"They see the institutional balance differently," the official said.

Giscard confirmed after the meeting that the EU would continue to be based on an institutional triangle - European Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers - and that "this triangle must be the most equilateral possible".

The former French president warned, however, against focusing too much on the distribution of powers between the institutions to the detriment of the debate on what the EU's overall mission should be.

"Institutions inflame the spirits very quickly," he said.

That was evident in Copenhagen, with signs of a deepening rift between federalist and intergovernmentalist leaders.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and European Commission President Romano Prodi pleaded for more powers for the Commission.

But British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Swedish premier Göran Persson warned that the common foreign and security policy, one of the most sensitive areas, must remain in member states' hands.

The leaders of Portugal and Austria, José Manuel Durão Barroso and Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, warned their colleagues not to harden their positions before a full and open debate in March.

"We are heading towards a mother-of-all EU institutions row in March, but we need a frank discussion at the highest level, so that we know exactly what is acceptable and what is not," an official close to Giscard said.

If that doesn't happen, he added, "the Convention may risk presenting a beautiful project which is rejected".

EU heads of state and government are preparing to start crucial negotiations on the issue at the heart of the future of Europe debate - how power should be distributed between the institutions.

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