Santer spells out central challenges for 1997

Date: 24/10/1996

By Simon Coss

CONFIDENCE in the Union's laws and institutions was at an all-time low, European Commission President Jacques Santer told MEPs in Strasbourg this week while outlining his policy priorities for the year ahead.

In a bid to improve the EU's tarnished image and to raise its standing in public opinion, Santer set out four central challenges: creating a sound economic base, reinforcing Europe's distinctive social model, ensuring the Union's place on the world stage and preparing for the future.

“Reforming what is wrong, concentrating on real priorities: this is the essence of the European Commission's programme for 1997,” he told MEPs.

In a speech laced with references to the need to tackle unemployment, the Commission president highlighted the challenges appearing over the Union's horizon.

Completion of the Intergovernmental Conference next year would herald institutional changes and the opening of accession negotiations for the 12 states queuing up to join the Union, he forecast.

And 1997 would also be the time to start thinking about how an enlarged Union would be financed when the current budgetary package ran out in 2000.

Luxembourg socialist MEP Ben Fayot broadly welcomed Santer's proposals but cautioned against what he called a

“neo-liberal” approach to policy-making. Social considerations should not be sacrificed on the altar of free market economics, he warned.

He also insisted that without better cooperation between the Union's three key legislative institutions, the process of European integration was in danger of grinding to a halt.

Liberal group leader Gijs de Vries struck a nuanced tone when he congratulated the Commission for demonstrating sound political judgement by reducing the number of political initiatives and legislative proposals.

“After the frenzied activism of the Delors Commission it was, indeed, time for a change. I wonder, however, if the pendulum has perhaps not swung too far in the opposite direction,” he said.

The Dutch MEP specifically criticised Santer and his colleagues for seeming “hesitant to exercise political leadership to the full extent permitted by the treaty”. He insisted that without that leadership the revised Maastricht Treaty might never be ratified by EU members.

The Commission president also came in for criticism from MEPs for omitting to mention the 14 Trans-European Networks (TENs) in his brief address, having failed to convince EU finance ministers to back these flagship initiatives.

But Dutch MEP Ria Oomen-Ruitjen, speaking for the European People's Party (EPP), insisted that the attacks should be directed at EU governments. She warned that citizens were rapidly losing patience with Europe's leaders when they failed to deliver on their grand promises and singled out finance ministers for special criticism for blocking various TENs projects.

Also speaking for the EPP, Italian MEP Giampaolo D'Andrea stressed that the Union must press ahead to complete the internal market, including free movement of people and mutual recognition of qualifications.