Brussels, 24/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Preparatory Group for the Intergovernmental Conference, chaired by Portuguese Secretary of State Francisco Seixas da Costa, which met for the first time on February 15, is expected to get down to business at its meeting on Friday, March 15 (see EUROPE, February 17, page 3). This Friday, the Seixas Group will be continuing its discussions on the possible extension of qualified majority voting to the Council, following the method recommended by the Finnish Presidency of examining Treaty Articles category by category. On Friday the Group will also start looking at any Amendments to the Treaty which might prove necessary other than the three important institutional issues left over from Amsterdam.
In terms of extending qualified majority voting, the Portuguese Presidency has submitted a series of documents on: (1) Treaty Articles which could be entirely decided on by a qualified majority vote (see below); (2) Articles which could be partly decided on by a qualified majority vote "after rearranging the measures they cover", i.e. Articles on taxation, social affairs and the environment; (3) Articles on Justice/Internal Affairs presenting specific problems; (4) the issue of Article 308 (formerly Article 235 which rules that "where Community action appears necessary to meet, in terms of the functioning of the Common Market, one of the Community's objectives and where the present Treaty does not grant the power to carry out such action, the Council shall take the appropriate measures by a unanimous vote on a proposal from the Commission, after consulting the European Parliament").
The Presidency document lists the following measures which currently require unanimous voting but for which it is necessary to consider moving to qualified majority voting:
1. The functioning of the Internal Market: freedom of movement and residence and carrying out unpaid activity in other Member States, exemptions from basic transport regulations, economic measures in the event of shortages of certain products.
2. The budget: support for Member States' cultural and industrial initiatives, the rules covering Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, Financial Regulations.
3. "Inter-institutional coherence": regulations ruled by unanimous voting where the EP has the right to codecision, authorising closer cooperation, social security measures needed for the free circulation of workers.
4. Nominations: the Presidency considers that unanimity in this area is up for discussion, indicating that the "disputed rules" cover all EU institutions and bodies, including the Board of Directors of the ECB, Commissioners and the President of the Commission.
5. Foreign relations: international CFSP agreements (where joint actions are decided by qualified majority), compiling the list of dual-use material, some association agreements.
6. Other measures including: serious and persistent violation of Human Rights (Article 7), anti-discrimination measures (Article 13), CFSP decisions and police and judicial cooperation decisions, the right to vote in municipal and EP elections, the status of MEPs, the location of institutions' headquarters, agreements on the exchange rate system for the euro, assigning specific caretaking missions to the ECB, international agreements on services and intellectual property.