Justice chief’s farewell message: ‘Speed up EU decision-making’

Date: 13/03/03

By Martin Banks

THE outgoing head of the European Commission's directorate for justice and home affairs has called for EU decision-making to be speeded up.

Director-General Adrian Fortescue said that despite some progress in the past few years, the Commission had "still not escaped the yoke" of unanimity required for decision-making by EU ministers in this field.

"However good the quality of Commission proposals, Council [of Ministers] decisions are very slow in coming and the search for consensus all too often leads to serious watering down of our initial proposals," he added.

Fortescue hopes that the Convention on Europe's future and the Intergovernmental Conference which follows it will produce the necessary corrections to speed up decision-making in future.

"In the meantime, we have to live with results falling below the level of ambition we set ourselves," he said.

Fortescue, who is replaced next week by fellow Briton Jonathan Faull, currently head of the Commission's press and information service, claimed DG Justice and Home Affairs had "come of age" in the past decade.

"To have been able to create something substantial from nothing in the relatively short period of just over ten years is obviously satisfying, particularly so when you consider that the area falls within the remit of the national ministries of interior and justice - not famous for their openness to working with the EU."

He admits it was not easy at first to gain acceptance for this "new and unorthodox" area of work within the Commission itself.

"Its quasi-intergovernmental nature was much sneered upon by the guardians of institutional orthodoxy. All that has now changed and justice and home affairs has - almost - entered the mainstream. The three-person team who set off down this road in 1989 has now become a 200-person, fully-fledged DG.

"We have come of age and are recognised to have done so."

Despite such greater acceptance, Fortescue expressed concern that the directorate remains ill-equipped to do its job properly.

"Despite our rapid growth, my directorate-general is still the smallest in the Commission which does not reflect the weight of the Commission's work programme which falls on us."

The Briton, who was put in charge of the directorate three years ago after heading a JHA taskforce, readily admits that he has found it hard to keep up with the "sheer headline-grabbing" pace of events in his area of responsibility. "One only has to recall the events of 11 September 2001 where the EU's response had to be immediate and relevant. In the Commission, eyes turned automatically to commissioner António Vitorino and his services.

"Happily, we were able to deliver but it was a pressure I would not wish to live with every day."

Looking to the future, the 61-year-old former UK foreign office official, predicts that terrorism, asylum and immigration will continue to be the key issues in coming years.

"Terrorism is not going to go away, although the Commission's ongoing role in fighting terrorism is tenuous since we have no operational powers.

"The subjects where we have a greater role to play and where member states increasingly look to us to produce the policy instruments needed are more likely to be immigration, asylum and judicial cooperation.

"Another area where things could really take off - again, depending on the next treaty - is that of fundamental rights, where the Commission's somewhat ambiguous role could be clarified and lead to a hugely increased workload."

Asked what advice he might give to his successor, Fortescue replies: "Come more out of the shadows than I have done.

"We are now a grown-up area and can be proud of what we have achieved. But future success will always depend much more on the quality of your product than the noise you make about it."

As to his own future plans, Fortescue, who has worked for the Commission for 21 years in two separate spells, says he will enjoy a "good holiday" followed, possibly, by taking an academic job.

"Whatever I do, I will find it impossible to forget the baby I fathered called justice and home affairs and the people who have helped me to bring it to maturity.

"And, who knows, someone, somewhere may decide that I can still make a useful contribution, albeit at a less demanding pace than during the last ten years."

The outgoing head of the European Commission's directorate for justice and home affairs, Adrian Fortescue, has called for EU decision-making to be speeded up.