Brussels, 28/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The twelve applicant countries that are already negotiating their membership of the European Union have informed the Portuguese Presidency of their positions regarding the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the EU's institutional reform. They:
- are all in favour of a rapid conclusion of the IGC, ie., by the end of the year, so as to prevent the enlargement process as such being delayed. For that reason, almost all of them consider that the IGC's agenda should be limited to the three "Amsterdam left-overs" (size and composition of the Commission, allocation of votes within the Council, extension of qualified majority voting);
- want each Member State in future to have the right to appoint a Commissioner;
- recognize the need to remodel the distribution of voting of Member States within the Council, but place importance on maintaining a balance between the "large" and "small" countries, and the fact that "small" countries need protecting (of which all the applicant countries, except Poland and Hungary are part);
- are in favour of the extension of the use of qualified majority voting, except for constitutional issues and some exceptions yet to be determined;
- want to be informed and closely consulted during negotiations.
This is what emerges from the letters that each of the twelve governments of the applicant countries recently sent to the Portuguese Presidency of the EU, the latter having invited them to express their points of view on the IGC in general and on the three Amsterdam left-overs.
The letters of the candidates are, almost all, rather of a general nature. The Government do however express their desire to set out their more specific and detailed stances, once negotiations are underway and that precise options are presented to them on the different aspects under negotiations.
Among the national particularities expressed in these letters from the applicant countries, we may, notably, mention that:
- Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania say that, in their opinion, the current IGC should lead to results enabling the EU to enlarge to all twelve applicant countries, without recourse to additional institutional reforms in the near future;
- Bulgaria says it is in favour of an additional strengthening of the concept of "flexibility", considering that that mechanism could facilitate an acceleration of the enlargement process;
- Poland and the Czech Republic call for the applicant countries to have direct, immediate and unlimited access to all IGC documents (papers of the EU Presidency, Member States and institutions), "in the same way as EU Member States";
- Poland wants the question of the number of seats in the European Parliament to be settled by the IGC (Warsaw agrees to an overall ceiling of 700 seats).
- Cyprus considers that the concept of flexibility, variable geometry or even "pick and choose Europe" should be approached with "great caution" due to the risk of diluting EU policies. Institutional reforms have to aim at maintaining the EU's decision-making capabilities, says the Cypriot Government. The latter places special emphasis on the need to clearly separate decisions that have to be taken at European level and those which, in accordance with subsidiarity, should be taken at national or local level.
