| Author (Person) | Spinant, Dana |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.20, 29.5.03, p6 |
| Publication Date | 28/05/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 28/05/03 By Frenetic talks are underway within Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's inner circle, the praesidium, aimed at breaking the deadlock in the Convention over how power should be distributed between EU institutions in the future. The first draft of the constitution, unveiled by the 13-strong group on 26-27 May, fails to present a compromise on the key questions concerning the institutions. The revised version of the text also waters down previous proposals by the praesidium by retaining the national veto over foreign affairs (see Analysis, Page 7) and on tax policy. Negotiations on the institutional balance of powers were blocked last week by Spain, which opposed plans to replace the existing system of weighting votes in the Council of Ministers with a double majority, under which a decision has to be backed by a majority of member states representing a majority of the Union's population in order to be carried. The present complex weighting system, negotiated during the Nice summit in December 2000, gives Spain more voting power than it would be entitled to according to its population. Under the Nice Treaty, Spain, with a population of 39 million, has 27 votes in the Council - just two votes fewer than Germany, which has 82 million inhabitants. According to one praesidium insider, Spain's veto on this effectively wrecked any hope of agreement on the institutional package. "It is like a domino: if one piece falls, the rest will fall too. If the Spanish opened the door on voting in the Council, we could have found a solution for the composition of the Commission too: everything is linked," he said. The praesidium will, nevertheless, strive to achieve a compromise on the sensitive issues at the heart of the institutional question, including plans to elect an EU President. If the forum fails to reach an agreement, Giscard will have to present to EU leaders at the Thessaloniki summit (20 June) with a set of options instead of a single proposal. This risks weakening the draft on which the Convention has been working for 15 months. However, one praesidium member told European Voice that "two clean options would, at the end of the day, be better than a lousy compromise". The praesidium revised its initial proposal - except for the section on institutions - to integrate amendments tabled by Convention members. It re-wrote the definition of the Union, deleting the word "federal" which was staunchly opposed by the UK. Under the new definition, "the Union shall coordinate the policies by which the member states aim to achieve these objectives, and shall exercise in the Community way the competencies they confer on it". An official from the Convention secretariat explained that the words "Community way" meant exactly the same as federal, "but does not scare the Brits". However, the draft does clearly state that the constitution and EU laws have primacy over the laws of the member states - despite UK opposition to spelling this out. The so-called 'primacy principle' has been applied in the EU since 1964, but never before been written into a treaty. The draft also contains an unprecedented 'exit clause' allowing member states to withdraw from the Union for a maximum of two years if they so wish. It also simplifies EU decision-making by reducing the number of 'instruments' (types of decisions) from 15 to five. As expected, it contains a 'solidarity clause' under which member states will commit to assisting each other in the event of a "terrorist attack or natural or man-made disaster". This would, for instance, include the use of military force to protect a fellow member state. In addition, the constitution draft introduces the idea of 'financial perspectives', which paves the way for scrapping the present division of the budget into 'compulsory' and 'non-compulsory' expenditure (on which the Council and Parliament respectively had the last word). The constitution will have 462 Articles, with 59 in the first part, 54 in the second, 340 in the third and nine in the fourth section. 1st part: 59 articles
2nd part: 54 articles
3rd part: c.340 articles
4th part: 9 articles
The European Convention's Praesidium still needs to find a compromise on how power should be distributed in the EU's institutions in the future. |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations |
