Lisbon, 10/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - "We do not have a megalomaniac vision of our abilities" …. This was how Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, President-in-Office of the European Council since 1 January, summarised the basic philosophy of the Portuguese Council Presidency during its term of office. "We shall try to do our best to elaborate a vision and a strategy for Europe", Mr Guterres told a small group of European journalists who interviewed him last Friday. He confided in them that: "Our underlying principle will be to strengthen Europe's political unity as far as possible in a vision of the future which mainly integrates the enlargement dimension. At the same time, we shall be working in a determined way, while respecting the wishes of Member States, with a view to defining economic and social strategies that allow the Union to remain competitive, and to conserve the model of social cohesion which we hold dear". He went on to add: "We shall support everything that points to consolidation of Europe". As Portugal sees it, integration has been an "essential factor in stabilising and strengthening democracy" (which, he added in essence, must be borne in mind with a view to forthcoming enlargement). Describing the main lines of the Portuguese Presidency's programme, Mr Guterres placed emphasis on the following themes:
- Extraordinary European Council on employment and reforms. The Presidency regards this summit, which is to be held in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March, as "an instrument in a process" that it "hopes to extend in time" to allow the Union to "have an aim and to give itself a strategy". It will not be an end in itself, but a "time for establishing a great ambition, that of making Europe, within about ten years, a more competitive, more job generating area with greater social cohesion". The aim should be to "construct an economic area based on the information and knowledge society", which results in "the capacity to generate high levels of sustainable growth". At this level, "Europe is not starting from nothing" as "there is the euro" and "three processes are in progress", that of Luxembourg (active employment policies), "which has taken root well"; that of Cardiff (economic reforms in the context of the Internal Market), "which has begun"; and that of Cologne (macro-economic dialogue), "which is taking its first steps". To this backdrop, the "aim is not to create a new process" but to take, "in Lisbon and after", decisions which make it possible to consolidate and make the overall process consistent, beginning with a "methodology which allows for greater efficacy". In Mr Guterres' view, "consolidation and consistency" implies "putting to good use instruments" which already exist, beginning with the "Broad Guidelines that should be a preliminary defining the broad economic and social guidelines" - a field in which the Council must intervene "with an overall view" encompassing "employment, competitiveness and stability", the latter dimension being "kept even if it means adding a few elements". In this respect, Antonio Guterres trusts that the EU will commit itself in two directions: a) the information society, with the "construction of a true knowledge economy", which means reflecting on R&D, education and training (while "respecting what is untouchable in national educational instruments"); b) "joint reflection on social protection" at a time when the EU is marked by an ageing population and when it is appropriate to "guarantee sustainable social protection". A working group has begun to work on this problem. Mr Guterres added to this the fight against social exclusion as, he believes, it is necessary to "recognise that there are hard cores of exclusion which need to be dealt with" (the Portuguese Presidency is collaborating with the European Commission so that it may "start up an initiative" on this).
Regarding methodology, "we are hoping for open coordination", depending on possibilities. Mr Guterres said, "I should like to be able, with Commission backing, to conduct the highest consensus on a strategy to which the process is geared pushing for the greatest cooperation possible in each field". In some fields, Mr Guterres will thus recommend a system of benchmarking, "with a limited number of indicators so that comparisons may be made, emulation sparked off, and positions taken compared to the outside" (the United States in particular). "Elsewhere, given the principle of subsidiarity", he will propose "more flexible coordination, or even a simple exchange of information and good practices". This will be the case, for example, for social protection.
In answer to questions on the practical and operational nature of these ideas, Mr Guterres (who said he was "neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but determined like Jean Monnet" and convinced of the "need for coordinated efforts and a strategic vision") felt that, the "advantage" of the Luxembourg process was the existence of "precise indicators and a common political will to achieve quantified objectives and measure them". From now on, "the key to success, is the more generalised acceptance of benchmarking". Hoping to reach concrete results in the fields of information society and social cohesion, he also said he was aware of how "impossible it is to increase the Community budget" ("this matter must not be reopened", he said), though he did feel that there could be "enormous synergies" if one took advantage of Structural Funds and coordination of investment policies of the different Member States. By way of example, he judged that "the aim of linking all schools to the Internet" would be "very important". He also mentioned the need for "easier access to financial markets".
- Intergovernmental Conference. The Portuguese Presidency will respect the Helsinki decisions, namely that there are leftovers from Amsterdam and that it is possible for it to open new themes, which "it intends to do". In Mr Guterres' opinion, it is "important for the IGC not to restrict itself to institutional aspects alone". "The Presidency will begin with the leftovers with a view to being able to come to a conclusion under French Presidency, but it will try to enlarge the agenda so that negotiations have some meaning for public opinion". In this spirit, the agenda should "no doubt" be enlarged to defence issues, and the Presidency will grant major importance to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. Nonetheless, there is only the "possibility of limited enlargement of the agenda", not of a "more overall IGC". And, at this level, "the role of the Presidency is not to impose its views but to find possible consensus", which is one reason why it is "consulting the Member States". As Mr Guterres sees it, however, the question of "qualified majority is directly related to strengthened cooperation", which is an "important element for making an enlarged Europe function correctly" ("without excluding any country in an arbitrary way", he points out). In his view, there is an "obvious link between the possibilities of qualified majority and the possibilities of enhanced cooperation (…) for contributing to avoiding blocking". For this reason, it would be "logical" to deal with this field which could probably be evoked (while Portugal, for its part, is in favour of broad extension of qualified majority). In answer to questions on perceptible dissonance within his government concerning enhanced cooperation (see our bulletins of 7 and 8 January), the Portuguese prime minister pointed out that his country had, in this connection, gone from "a relatively negative position to a positive position", this evolution being "faster for some than for others". This evolution proceeds from the fact that we are moving towards an increasingly heterogeneous EU and that, as enhanced cooperations already exist (he cited single currency and Schengen), it was better to "place this determination of certain Member States to go further faster within the logic of the Treaty". Portugal will "seek to be involved in each type of enhanced cooperation", added Mr Guterres, who specified that, during his Presidency, he will be seeking "operational consensus". By way of conclusion, he felt that the IGC could be successful if all the Member States agreed on the "rationale of building Europe" and were not restricted to the "logic of strengthening their relative role". If the IGC proves to be just a "battlefield between large and small states, it will not be a success, as at the end of the day it will be punctuated by national ratification". He also went on to specify that he did not share the fears of Finnish Prime Minister Lipponen concerning the emergence of a "directorate" - which is "normally very ineffective" - and that he considered it "essential to have dialogue between the small and large countries".
- Security/defence. "We have an Atlantic vision, but we believe we must create a European pillar of the Alliance that is credible and that is anchored in the Union", pointed out Mr Guterres, who stated that the Presidency would make the creation of a common security and defence policy a top priority and that it would like to "go as far as possible" in this field.
- Russia/Chechnya. The Union has "spoken very clearly" but its "problem concerns effectiveness" as it has already used all the instruments available to it, which is "proof that Europe remains politically very impotent". This is why "one must work seriously towards creating a political Europe" and, consequently, on the "essential element that constitutes security and defence policy".
- Taxation. Antonio Guterres is "a little sceptical" about the "possibility of having enhanced cooperation" in this field. At any rate, the Presidency will try, in this matter, to "be a part of a solution and not part of the problem, which would be the case if it spoke of enhanced cooperation".
- Food safety. Mr Guterres believes that "progress should be made along the lines of a European Food Safety Agency".
