| Author (Person) | Cronin, David |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.35, 23.10.03, p13-14 |
| Publication Date | 23/10/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
|
By David Cronin Date: 23/10/03 SILVIO Berlusconi would no doubt relish an opportunity to chant Julius Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered" mantra while declaring Italy's EU presidency an epoch-defining success. Last week, though, he seemed to take his cue from an Elvis Presley oldie - I slipped, I stumbled, I fell. While his political foes have long been trying to trip up the Italian premier over charges of bribery and conflict of interest, it was one of those lethal staircases so common in Belgian buildings that caused the tycoon to be briefly toppled. Luckily, Berlusconi emerged from his tumble at the Meise chateau, where the European People's Party leaders hatched their eve-of-summit strategy, with just a bruised arm. When he arrived at the Council of Ministers the following morning, there was no sign that his injury had affected his panache. By Friday, he was waxing lyrical about how a united Europe could skip deftly around any banana skins it may encounter. "Water, food, health and education are key values but they are very material ones," he mused. "To deliver them you first have to have the principal values of liberty and democracy. The values of Greece, Rome, the enlightenment, Christianity - all of these are things we should export." There was a distinct talking-shop ambience at the summit; the rubberstamping of Jean-Claude Trichet's appointment as president of the European Central Bank was the most tangible decision taken. The dialogue on the European constitution, supposedly the big topic of day one, barely moved beyond a restatement of all the known positions. So it came as little surprise that Berlusconi should resort to such grandiose rhetoric. One might have expected the Italian to express optimism that the Union's first constitution would be unveiled to the world with a minimum of hassle - he hopes, after all, to be the midwife at its birth. But others at the summit were voicing fears that the 12-13 December European Council in Brussels, where the birth is scheduled to take place, will spawn a monster. Poland and Spain are the two member states most opposed to the proposals on the make-up of key EU bodies in the draft text prepared by the future of Europe Convention. And there is a worry that the serious hurdle which their opposition presents will only be overcome by an all-night horse-trading session, guaranteed to stir memories of the unedifying haggling which resulted in the messy 2000 Treaty of Nice. European Parliament President Pat Cox underscored the concern: "At Nice, Santa Claus was more evident than objective constitutional clauses in many of the final trade-offs. There should be no middle-of-the-night, under-the-counter deal [on the constitution]." The Cork MEP also seemed determined to subject the proposals on "relaunching" the European economy to an almost forensic level of examination. Although backing the main thrust of plans to pump €50 billion into large infrastructural projects such as roads and scientific research by 2010, Cox was querying whether this will comply with the fiscal straitjackets imposed by the Stability and Growth Pact. It is a question European Commission representatives are likely to face again as they fine-tune the proposals in time for the December summit. Determined to make his mark further, Cox wondered aloud if the EU leaders' discussion on justice and home affairs would translate into solid action any time soon. Since the 1999 Tampere summit created an agenda for the Union to plunge into these previously uncharted waters, the Commission has come forward with a series of proposed laws on asylum and immigration. Although MEPs have given their verdict on these directives (covering such topics as what criteria refugees should meet to qualify for protection), the Council of Ministers remained deadlocked, Cox noted. The summit did make a breakthrough by deciding that the EU needs a border-management agency to join the 15 agencies that it already has (these include the scandal-embroiled number-cruncher Eurostat). But work on the precise details for the new body still has to be completed - again, this is due to be finished in time for the December gathering. It's going to a very busy few weeks. A much more difficult matter will be agreeing on precisely where this putative body should be housed. One piquant rumour doing the rounds at the summit was that it has been offered to Helsinki in return for the Finns agreeing that Italy can host the European Food Safety Authority's headquarters in Parma. It fell to Romano Prodi, Commission president and possibly Italy's next prime minister, to kill that canard. The agency's location was not broached, he said, doing his best to maintain a calm demeanour while flanking Berlusconi, his bitter nemesis. "It would have been a bit more tense if we had talked about it," Prodi added. For many, the big story of the summit was how "Gerhard Chirac" (as Le Figaro referred to it) was making his debut. The decision by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to have the French president stand in for him on day two (Schröder had to scurry back to Berlin for a key vote on labour market reforms in the Bundestag) prompted plenty of comment from other EU leaders. Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker is said to have remarked that the arrangement was appropriate as they "both have problems explaining why they are breaking the terms of the stability pact". But Chirac was quick to dispel any misunderstanding about their arrangement, claiming that he was not actually representing Schröder. His good friend had simply asked him to make some comments on his behalf about matters on which they both agreed, he explained. In any event, Chirac proved himself ill-suited to represent the Union's most populous state (even for just a day) - he had to have press queries posed auf Deutsch translated. On a more serious note, the French leader was at pains to point out that his support for developing a European defence structure autonomous from NATO is not really about anti-American posturing. Indeed, he was in a conciliatory mood, stressing that he was working to have the UK, America's chief ally, fully endorse the security blueprint, already backed by Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. "A European defence without Britain would not be very coherent," he admitted. Javier Solana, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, was equally keen to dispel notions that the way Britain is warming to the blueprint spells trouble for transatlantic ties. That much had been suggested a few days earlier when Washington's NATO envoy Nicholas Burns branded the plan "the most serious threat" to the Alliance's future. "If one reads the newspapers, this seems to be a very dramatic situation," Solana remarked. "It's not." As if the defence dossier was not trying enough for Tony Blair, he also had to contend with allegations that he was plotting to sell out his nation's queen to Brussels. The claim came from - where else? - Britain's top-selling newspaper The Sun. According to the tabloid, Elizabeth II is taking legal advice about the draft constitution, fearful that it will make her play "second fiddle" to Schröder and Chirac. "Royal lawyers are alarmed by a clause which hands all sovereign power to Brussels - including the Royal prerogative over foreign policy," the newspaper's political editor Trevor Kavanagh warned. Blair dismissed the story as scaremongering. Be that as it may, the report did allow The Sun to run a spoof photograph par excellence. It showed EU leaders grinning broadly from the balcony at Buckingham Palace. One day perhaps - but not this century. Analysis feature; |
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