Leading the EU onwards… via Berlin

Two MEPs look ahead to the German EU Presidency

Graham Watson

Germany, along with France, has traditionally played a central role in European construction. Under Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder they both lost their way in Europe and joined the clamour across the continent to pander to populist politics and national, even nationalist, agendas.

Angela Merkel promised to be a breath of fresh air - an unstuffy, pragmatic woman from East Berlin. She made an instant mark by asserting her (and Germany’s) positive influence on the EU by rescuing a deal on the future budgetary framework at the December 2005 summit through a last-minute financial injection.

She has also committed herself to preserving, as far as possible, the constitutional package that was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands. This suggests an understanding that, despite all the criticisms and doomsday scenarios, the compromise on institutional reform achieved by the Convention on the Future of Europe and signed by 25 heads of state and government represented a sensible and pragmatic deal. It will now fall to her government to set the context for a rethink of how the various elements of this package can be pieced back together, taking into account both the widespread opposition and misinformation.

The process will begin with the anticipated declaration marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Rome Treaty on 25 March next year. Beyond that, Angela Merkel will have her work cut out to extract anything more from her European Council colleagues than a timetable for reconsidering the text. So far the period of reflection has met with little more than a wall of silence from London, Warsaw, Paris and The Hague, where politicians are probably feeling more than a little bit guilty for not having made more of an effort to explain precisely what was in the constitution and how it would address many of the criticisms currently levelled at the EU.

If Germany and its successor presidencies - Portugal, Slovenia and France - are to have any measure of success they should start redirecting EU business to the ‘bigger picture’. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso seems to have picked up the scent with his emphasis on better regulation and reducing the burden on business, enterprise and innovation while defending a bigger Community role in issues like climate change, energy security, immigration, justice and home affairs and peace-building missions abroad. It is in these areas where Europe’s citizens can see the worth of a supranational body like the EU - not any more in regulating the minutiae of everyday life.

Yet one has to question how committed the German presidency will be to this agenda for Europe. We have already heard the vocal opposition from Berlin to the suggestion of using existing treaty tools to improve efficiency and democratic decision- making in the area of justice and home affairs. We have seen Germany’s reluctance to commit German troops to overseas missions. We are aware of German nationalist/populist reactions against the Union’s enlargement agenda, especially the pursuit of accession negotiations with Turkey, and we can also imagine the intense lobbying by the German telecommunications industry against European Commission efforts to deliver a better deal for mobile-phone users.

With this in mind, and the big legislative dossiers of REACH and the services directive behind us, I predict a relatively quiet and unambitious presidency which concentrates on a very German agenda for Europe. Given the role that Germany has played in the history of European construction, this may be a departure from past form and not the leadership that Europe needs right now.

European nations are collectively facing challenges common to them all; demographic challenges, security challenges, energy challenges, environmental challenges, commercial challenges and moral challenges of raising human rights concerns with our partners in trade and development.

To respond to these challenges and achieve these goals, Europe needs to be confident in itself if it is successfully to project a confident agenda to the world beyond its borders. At the moment it is demonstrating quite the opposite - one of squabbling and bickering nations more concerned about national pride and electoral survival than the broader, longer-term picture. Germany is Europe’s largest, most populated and most influential member state. Germans will preside over the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in the months ahead. It is once again incumbent upon Germany to lead the way.

• UK Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson is chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit

There are grand expectations for the incoming German presidency and what it can achieve. While history has shown that presidencies from the large member states often fail to live up to expectations, it is important that Germany is ambitious in its approach to some of the urgent issues facing Europe, notably climate change and the institutional paralysis caused by the lack of a constitution.

Climate change finally seems to have earned a place high on the EU agenda. In addition to the long-standing scientific consensus, we now also have an authoritative economic case for action. Quite apart from the environmental imperative of acting now, there is also a major competitive advantage to be gained from pioneering a new generation of environmentally friendly technologies, across all sectors of the economy.

By setting a unilateral target for post-Kyoto greenhouse gas reductions as early as possible, the EU will provide much needed certainty for investors and hopefully drive forward negotiations on a successor to Kyoto. The Spring Summit, at which energy will be a focus, is the perfect opportunity to this end and the German presidency should champion at least a target of a 30% greenhouse gas reduction by 2020 for the EU-27 (compared with 1990 levels).

Energy, both in terms of how it is used and how it is generated, also has a crucial role to play in our response to climate change. The energy strategy, which is due to be adopted at the Spring Summit, must include binding minimum improvements of EU energy efficiency of 20-25%. There is also a need for binding sectoral targets for renewables to encourage investment and to speed up uptake of clean energy. The nuclear propaganda bandwagon has revived but nothing has changed. Nuclear power is still expensive, dirty and dependent on finite uranium imports. If the German presidency is serious about addressing the climate crisis and Europe’s energy supply problems, a combination of efficiency and renewable energy must be prioritised.

The discussion on energy has become inseparable from the EU’s relations with Russia and other neighbouring countries in the Caucasus. It is clear that, in the short run, Europe will remain dependent on these countries to quench its thirst for oil and gas. In their grovelling for the crumbs from Gazprom’s table, EU leaders seem content to tiptoe around the issue of the major human rights violations in Russia for fear of offending Vladimir Putin. In pursuing a strategic partnership with Russia and other attempts to ensure a secure supply of gas and oil, the German presidency must not be afraid to defend core EU values, like the guarantee of human rights and freedom of expression.

The German presidency has long been touted as the saviour in terms of resolving the constitutional crisis and institutional limbo, which have paralysed the EU since the French and Dutch referendums last year. While the crisis will not be overcome in six months, there is a long overdue need to move the constitutional process forward and agree a fundamental treaty, which addresses the institutional problems in the EU.

Clearly, there is a need for as broad a consensus as possible on this treaty and, with that in mind, the German presidency should press for a new convention to be launched to this end. But this should not be an exhaustive process. The constitution was drafted by a convention representing all EU citizens and has been ratified by 18 member states and there is still agreement on most of its content. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Parts I and II of the draft constitution should form the backbone of the future treaty.

But the text should respond to the concerns raised in the context of the Dutch and French referenda. There needs to be a clearer definition of the social identity of the EU, as well as of subsidiarity.

For the Greens, the logical way to ensure public support for the resulting treaty would be to let EU voters decide at the same time as the 2009 European Parliament elections. It is crucial that a clear roadmap for this process is agreed under the German presidency.

• German Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit is co-leader of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament.

Two MEPs look ahead to the German EU Presidency