Political family redefines its identity

Date: 11/07/1996

THE Florence European summit may have heralded a truce in the UK's 'mad cow' war with its EU partners but, in reality, the formula which ended a messy period in the Union's history was devised in Brussels ten days earlier by a small group of the continent's most senior Christian Democratic politicians.

Present at that meeting were five EU prime ministers - six if one counts Italy's Romano Prodi, not a Christian Democrat but regarded as “one of us” by the others - three leaders whose parties are in coalition governments and Commission President Jacques Santer.

The undoubted heavyweight was Germany's Chancellor Kohl, but represented alongside him were the governments of Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, France and Finland.

“That European People's Party mini-summit was crucial in finding a way out of the problem. People had a clear idea of the room for manoeuvre enjoyed by six, and possibly nine, of the 15 EU governments. It was also important that Prodi, the host at Florence, and Santer were present,” commented one observer.

That Christian Democratic leaders met before the summit to establish where they shared common ground on the forthcoming agenda was not unusual.

They, and their Socialist counterparts, have been doing so for years.

But the Brussels meeting marked a new stage in the political family's development. It was the first time the group at the pinnacle of the European People's Party (EPP) had met in its new streamlined format.

With 20 parties as full members, previous EPP summits could see as many as 35 people in the room at any one time, making it virtually impossible to have any in-depth political discussions. Last month in Brussels, there were just 15 participants and no party officials, a formula which made it easier for the leaders to find a way to end the dispute.

The change was accompanied by the creation of a new top-level policy-making group designed to equip the EPP as a political force with the capacity for long-term reflection and policy coordination.

This is part of an elaborate internal reform exercise to streamline the increasingly unwieldy body of Christian Democracy in Europe and to consolidate a force able to handle the change in the political scenery which will accompany the Union's enlargement.

The change also reflects a subtle shift in Christian Democracy itself.

In contrast to the strong religious overtones to be found in the parties based in the six founding Union members, the network has now expanded into Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe, where such traditions are absent.

“Christian Democrats are not looking for trademarks. What we are concerned about is whether people share our policies. The core of our identity is our programme. The major role of the EPP is to build a joint identity with non-Christian Democratic parties,” explains EPP Secretary-General Klaus Welle.

Perhaps the most graphic example of this change in emphasis is Spain's Partido Popular's membership of the EPP. It began life as a nationalist party, but has gradually moved towards the centre and has now ousted Italy as one of the political family's three key players alongside Germany's Christian Democratic Union and the Benelux parties.

The main beneficiary of the changes in the Christian Democratic movement is the EPP, under its president Wilfried Martens, which aims to consolidate its position as a pan-European party before the next European Parliament elections in June 1999 and ahead of the arrival of a new wave of EU members.

The EPP has close links with its group in the European Parliament, but has set itself a wider agenda.

“What is important for us is not just to concentrate on the parliamentary group. Our key role is coordination and the bringing together of the main players such as the Commission, national governments, national leaderships and party presidents. That coordination and the construction of a joint political identity are important. The function of a European political party is to bind forces together so they can be a major player in the European Parliament,” explains Welle.

The reform process was endorsed by the EPP's congress in Madrid last November, with the aim of completing the changes by the end of 1998.

It continued yesterday (10 July) when the same small group of Christian Democratic leaders who devised the 'mad cow' peace formula met in Luxembourg. Facing them were applications for EPP observer status from eight political parties in Central and Eastern Europe.

More importantly, EPP leaders continued the process of ending the duplication within Christian Democracy's own ranks and the confusion in the public's mind caused by the rambling structure of overlapping bodies which has emerged over the past two to three decades.

In a classic case of matricide, the EPP, which was established exactly 20 years ago this week in preparation for the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979, is planning to kill off its parent body, the European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD).

Founded after the war, the EUCD now groups 47 political parties from both western and eastern Europe, although since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 it has increasingly concentrated its efforts in the latter.

“Up until now, we have operated a double structure between the EUCD and EPP. The EUCD has been a good link between parties in Central and Eastern Europe and those in the Union, but now there is a lot of support for integrating the EUCD into the European People's Party by the end of 1998. We need to work out a two-year transition strategy,” said one senior Christian Democratic official.

Another political strategist explains the decision more graphically. “It is time for a slaughter of the acronyms. The strategy is both a sign of confidence in political parties in Central and Eastern Europe and a stimulus for them to become organised.”

While the EPP is pressing for the change, the final decision on whether to phase out its 47-party parent organisation rests with the EUCD congress to be held in early October in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana.

Dutch Christian Democrat MEP Wim van Velzen, who was elected as EUCD president last month and will play a key role in ensuring the integration exercise runs smoothly, said this week: “I hope that at the end of my three-year term, this task will be completed. I consider it a very important part of my job.”

Van Velzen has no doubt that the EUCD has played an important role - and can continue to do so for a further two years - in nurturing the development of centre and centre-right political parties in Eastern Europe.

Without the advantages of the traditional infrastructure enjoyed by their Socialist opponents, the new parties are heavily dependent on the West for education, training and practical support.

“We are helping them to develop concepts and also to integrate into the European Union. Asking people to share sovereignty is not so easy when they have just got it back,” says Van Velzen.

But he acknowledges that operating a double structure can lead to unnecessary duplication of time and money. The merger is desirable not just on pragmatic grounds, however, but also for wider political reasons.

EPP leaders believe it is inconsistent to press the Union to consider membership for Central and Eastern European countries while not giving a clear indication that they also consider the associated political parties to be eligible for full EPP membership.

The reform process is far from over. There is a growing belief that the next candidate for change will be the European Democrat Union (EDU), which was founded in 1978 precisely to provide links with western European Christian Democratic parties whose countries were not EU members.

Its loose structure also appealed to France's Gaullists and British Conservatives, who find membership of the EDU a useful vehicle for networking.

But enlargement of the Union has undermined the EDU's raison d'être and its possible disappearance could leave both with no links - however tenuous - with the growing family of Christian Democrats.