Right against left: the European Parliament seems to be lagging a little… The European Parliament has not held any specific debate on preparation of the Lisbon Summit, but debate and the vote on the report by Greek Socialist Giorgos Katiforis on "The European Union's Economic Policy" in practice replaced the non-existent debate. Unfortunately, the EP did not even try to involve itself in discussion between Heads of Government on the fundamental positions to be adopted by the summit. It was divided between left and right, each side standing firm on its most traditional positions, often outdated by the evolution of both doctrines and world economic and scientific conditions. The right won by a few votes: 21 to 18 in the preparatory work in the relevante committee, 233 to 232 in plenary session. None of the political groups took into consideration that in real politics, -i.e. at the level of Heads of Government, who will be taking the final decision-, the right-left split is no longer the single criterion. By way of example, Tony Blair (left, according to the EP positions) and Aznar (right) are in fact exactly on the same wavelength on the conclusions to be approved in Lisbon.

On economic reforms and the modernisation of social security (to protect the European social model while preserving it), the proposals are much more qualified than what emerged from EP debate. Mr Katiforis called for the setting of target figures for unemployment, the generalised reduction of working hours, an increase in public investment (with EUR 400 billion for the trans-European networks)… Such clear-cut positions do not take account of the fact that some Member States have centre-right majorities, and with the European Parliament's present composition, they inevitably had to be rejected, by a hair, but rejected. The other side demanded flexibility in the labour market, the easing of administrative and tax constraints, the opening of markets, adaptation of social security and dismantling of the public postal service and energy monopolies.

In these different areas, sufficiently balanced compromises are taking shape and extreme positions have little chance of being endorsed at European level, because national positions are determined by elections whose results change and will change again. Europe does not have the right to impose uniform solutions for all. If the European Parliament does not take this into account, its positions will be ignored and remain totally useless. The essential guidelines of Europe's future economic policy cannot be defined by a majority of one or two votes.

F.R.