Nice shambles boosts support for convention

Date: 14/12/00

By Simon Taylor

FUTURE EU treaties could be drawn up by a new convention involving MEPs and national parliamentarians in a bid to end the bitter horse-trading which produced last weekend's much-criticised Nice Treaty.

Governments, frustrated at the messy deal which emerged from 41 hours of negotiations, are lining up behind Finland's call to create a convention modelled on the 62-member body which drafted the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

But some fear this would lead to demands for a fully-fledged European constitution, pushing the EU too far down the integrationist road.

Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen set out his idea fora convention in a speech last month. "Any future European agenda should be prepared on a broad basis by a convention that should include the governments and national parliaments of the member states and the candidate states and the EU institutions and representatives," he said.

At present, only EU member states decide the agenda for Intergovernmental Conferences and negotiate new treaty terms, with the European Commission and European Parliament acting solely as observers.

Under the Lipponen plan, convention members would try to resolve as many of the major issues as possible before formal intergovernmental negotiations get under way, reducing the 11th-hour haggling which produced Nice's potentially unworkable treaty.

Supporters of the convention idea argue that it would help EU leaders agree treaties which would improve the working of the Union to everyone's benefit.

"The problem is that prime ministers are obsessed with their national power interests and not with the common interest. A more pluralistic process would force them to focus on this issue," said UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff, a member of the convention which drafted the fundamental rights charter.

French President Jacques Chirac, whose handling of last weekend's talks came under attack from virtually all sides, told MEPs this week that the convention model "might be a suitable method for future IGCs".

The idea has strong backing from EU member states which favour more European integration - especially Belgium, which has been asked by Union leaders to consider how best to conduct the 2004 IGC during its presidency in the second half of next year. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was the most outspoken critic of the Nice Treaty, accusing large countries of putting their own interests before those of the Union as a whole.

Germany, Italy and the Netherlands also support the convention idea as a way to increase the democratic legitimacy of EU institutions.

But some governments, including the UK, Sweden and Denmark, have serious doubts about the approach. Sweden, which takes over the presidency in January and will work with Belgium on preparing for the next IGC, believes there should be a wide public debate on the future of the EU without creating a formal convention.

"The convention on rights delivered a finalised product. I am not sure that's how you want to go about the IGC," said Gunnar Lund, Stockholm's Ambassador to the Union.

EU leaders were nearly unanimous after the summit in calling for changes in the way treaty negotiations are conducted.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the Union could not "continue to take decisions as important as this in this way", adding: "Reform is essential so a more rational way of decision-making is achieved."

MEPs were highly critical of the treaty which emerged from the process. "This Intergovernmental Conference did not produce any kind of result. This should never be allowed to happen again," said Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the centre-right European People's Party, adding: "Let's try another model."

Future EU treaties could be drawn up by a new convention involving MEPs and national parliamentarians in a bid to end the bitter horse-trading which produced the much-criticised Nice Treaty. Governments, frustrated at the messy deal which emerged from 41 hours of negotiations, are lining up behind Finland's call to create a convention modelled on the 62-member body which drafted the Charter of Fundamental Rights.