Brussels, 10/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 February at 11h30, on the fringe of the General Affairs Council, Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama will open the Intergovernmental Conference on EU institutional reform. In addition to the EU15 foreign ministers, participants at the session, which will be of a formal rather than substantial kind, will include European Commission President Romano Prodi and President of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine, who will be present at all the ICG ministerial meetings (see page 3 of January 21 edition of EUROPE and page 6 of the January 24/25 edition on how the Portuguese Presidency intends to organise the preparations). During the six months of the Portuguese Presidency, the ICG will be meeting at ministerial level on March 20, April 10, May 5 (in the Azores), May 22 and June 23.
The Preparatory Group of the Intergovernmental Conference will start work on Tuesday 15 February in Brussels. The Group's meetings are scheduled for February 25, March 7 and 28, April 14-15 (informal meeting in Portugal), May 2, 16 and 30 and June 6.
The Intergovernmental Conference's Preparatory Group, chaired by Portuguese Secretary of State Francisco Seixas da Costa, which will be meeting for the first time on February 15, will be largely made up of Member States' Permanent Representatives to the EU. The following ambassadors will join the Group: Pierre Vimont (France), Sir Stephen Wall (United Kingdom), Silvio Fagiolo (Italy), Nicolas Schmit (Luxembourg), Poul Skytte Christophersen (Denmark), Antti Satuli (Finland), Gunnar Lund (Sweden) and Gregor Woschnagg (Austria). Germany and the Netherlands will each be sending their Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Günter Pleuger and Dick Benschop respectively, to join the Group. Spain will be represented by Carlos Bastarreche Sagues, General Secretary of the country's Foreign and European Office and Greece by Professor Takis Ioakmides (see EUROPE, January 31/February 1, page 5).
Ireland (which has a new Foreign Affairs Minister, Brian Cowen) is also expected to appoint its Permanent Representative, Denis O'Leary, and Belgium is likely to select its representative for the Preparatory Group this Friday. The European Commission is sending Michel Barnier, Commissioner for Institutional Affairs, while the European Parliament will be represented by Dimitris Tsatsos (Greek Socialist) and Elmar Brok (German Christian Democrat who, along with Elisabeth Guigou, had been the Parliament's observer at the IGC which formulated the Amsterdam Treaty).
Mr Seixas da Costa: Preparatory Group's work to be split into "two phases"
As reported on page 5 of the February 4 edition of EUROPE, Francisco Seixas da Costa had outlined to the European Parliament the aims of the IGC under the Portuguese Presidency which, he hoped, "would pass some tangible results on to the French Presidency, representing as accurately as possible" the direction Member States were moving in. Mr Seixas da Costa also expressed his hope that the Presidency's second report, to be presented at the Santa Maria da Feira European Summit after the Lisbon Summit, might include some concrete issues in the form of "Treaty documents, where possible". He announced that the Presidency would ensure that the European Commission's proposals to the IGC were given proper treatment, no matter how Member States reacted to the proposals.
Mr Seixas da Costa reiterated that as far as the Portuguese Presidency was concerned, the Helsinki Remit for the IGC not only covered matters outstanding from Amsterdam, but also the operation of EU institutions and bodies along with issues such as "the legal status of the Union, simplifying the Treaties" and other questions "which are important to us" like how Parliament will be structured after enlargement or Commissioners' personal responsibilities.
Mr Seixas da Costa announced that he planned to divide the Preparatory Group's work into two phases of discussions on all the different topics to be covered, viz:
- a first phase starting with the issue of qualified-majority voting, followed by institutional matters related to Amsterdam "leftovers", and only then would the question of the Commission and vote weighting be discussed. "Closer cooperation will be included under institutional matters", announced the IGC Chairman.
- a second phase in the final stage of IGC negotiations, which would re-examine issues which have already been discussed and try to identify new issues which might come up and in particular, whether negotiations over security and defence problems, to be covered under separate talks, would reach sufficient "maturity" for them to be included in the final stage of the IGC. If conclusions are reached in separate discussions on the Charter of Fundamental Rights, they may also be included in the Intergovernmental Conference in the second half of this year.