Brussels, 01/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - In the absence of Mr Seixas da Costa, who could not get to Brussels in time, and Elmar Brok (Christian Democrat, Germany), who was held up by his duties as chairman of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs, it was Greek Socialist Dimitri Tsatsos who, on Monday evening before the Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs, gave an account of the work of the Preparatory Group for the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), held on 25 February under the chairmanship of Mr Seixas da Costa.
After having stressed the very positive welcome given by the Portuguese Presidency to the two representatives of the European Parliament - himself and Mr Brok - as well as the very constructive climate of the first discussions, Mr Tsatsos recalled that, at the Council's request, he was to keep to a certain confidentiality. At the present time, he said, the Member States support the provisional positions likely to substantially change the course of the negotiation. Expressing his personal feelings, Mr Tsatsos felt that this IGC "will make little but important progress". He explained that the Preparatory Group has discussed at length the extension of qualified majority vote in Council, on the basis of the text of the Portuguese Presidency, which identifies several categories of provisions likely to go from unanimity to qualified majority (see EUROPE of 25 February, p.3). Even though the discussion began on the basis of a case by case basis, Mr Tsatsos considers it reasonable to hope for a final solution founded on qualified majority as a general rule, with exceptions, as the European Parliament hopes. In his view, this character of general rule is important in itself even if, at the end of the day, there are more exceptions that what the Parliament had wanted. Mr Tsatsos pointed out that the two EP representatives (he described his collaboration with Mr Brok as "real team work") also insisted on the granting of co-decision powers to the EP for all legislative decisions under Council qualified majority, while noting the criticism of Member States which consider that this supposes that the Parliament should make additional efforts to make its participation in the codecision procedure more effective. Mr Tsatsos and Mr Brok replied that the responsibility for the delays noted in this procedure should be sought not only on the Council side but also on that of the Parliament.
The discussion that the Preparatory Group held on Friday morning during lunch on the subject of the enhanced cooperations makes Mr Tsatsos believe that, despite some reticence, most Member States hope to add this question to the IGC agenda. Mr Tsatsos also felt that the Portuguese Presidency will no doubt make proposals to include the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the work of the IGC.
Furthermore, Mr Tsatsos specified that he and Mr Brok had announced to the Seixas da Costa Group that the Parliament will be making proposals on its own composition and the distribution of mandates between Member States. Finally, he reminded his colleagues that, as far as the Court of Justice is concerned, the Portuguese Presidency suggested the establishment of a "Group of Friends of the Presidency" responsible for examining possible ideas of reform. The Parliament, said Mr Tsatsos, should be represented in this group by a senior official.
The chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Giorgio Napolitano (PES-DS, Italian), hoped, for his part, for rapid adoption of the report by Mr Dimitrakopoulos and Mr Leinen, so that both EP representatives may have a detailed position of the Parliament available in the negotiation. He felt that the Parliament could thus take advantage of the current fluidity on the IGC agenda for putting priorities forward.