Brussels, 19/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The foreign offices of eleven EU nation states (Germany, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal) have responded to the current reflection on the future of Europe, being chaired by the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. In a joint paper published on Monday 17 September, the countries say that to deal with the “crisis of confidence” arising from globalisation and the sovereign debt crisis, the “absolute priority” is to boost Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), before dealing with other issues to give Europe a stronger position on the world stage and give it greater democratic legitimacy.
Prioritising a stronger EMU. The eleven foreign ministers say powers needed to be transferred to Brussels from the nation states to give Brussels greater power of scrutiny over countries' national budget policies while respecting national powers when it comes to actually drawing up the budget. In exchange, some ministers say greater EU surveillance should be accompanied by additional European solidarity mechanisms such as a pooling of sovereign debt. All eleven back the idea of establishing a common eurozone bank supervisory body, and some want a common savings guarantee system and bank restructuring mechanism. In the long-term, the European Stability Mechanism could, they say, become a genuine European Monetary Fund. The ministers view conclusion of the Single Market and closer (often binding) employment policy and pensions systems as crucial.
Greater democratic legitimacy. A more integrated EMU presupposes an increase in democratic legitimacy in the EU. The European Parliament should have a greater role both as a co-decision institution and as an advisory body. The ministers say that when policies in the nation states reflect on the wider Europe (budget policy, for example), then national parliaments must endorse them. They suggest that a permanent joint committee might be set up on which MPs and MEPs would have equal powers. In terms of the EU institutions, the ministers say that a “super-qualified majority” system might be set up for revising the EU treaties (on the basis of the number of countries voting and the number of voters in each country) to prevent a minority from vetoing the aims of the majority to pursue greater European inegration. They also suggest that for the European elections, European political parties should make their leaders candidates for presidency of the European Commission. Some ministers say that eventually, the president of the Commission could be elected by universal suffrage, the Parliament could be given the “power of initiative” (the ability to unveil draft legislation) and a second chamber might be set up for the member states.
A stronger High Representative for Foreign Affairs. The eleven ministers want greater coherence between the EU's foreign action by a stronger European diplomatic corps (the European Foreign Action Service, due to be revised in 2013) and greater powers for the High Representative (HR). The ministers say the HR should be given power over key foreign policy domains like the Neighbourhood Policy and a bigger role in terms of development aid. The HR's “operational capacity to coordinate various players” should be expanded in other domains in order to act as a proper coordinator at the European Commission. The ministers want a stronger common defence and security policy, some even mooting the idea of a European army.
The ministers want a number of foreign policy priorities to be defined to improve the way the Foreign Affairs Council operates, with more strategic and targeted consultations and a six-monthly timeline. The ministers want more regular Gymnich-type meetings and a European Summit to be held every year to discuss foreign policy. The idea of qualified majority decisions is raised for economic and foreign policy decisions. (MB/CG/transl.fl)