Brussels, 18/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - At the opening of the informal meeting of the Preparatory Group of the Intergovernmental Conference of 14 and 15 April in Sintra devoted to enhanced cooperation, the Portuguese Presidency took me "somewhat by surprise" by beginning to ask us in what fields we felt this kind of cooperation could be envisaged, said Greek Socialist Dimitri Tsatsos (who, with German Christian Democrat Elmar Brok, represents the European Parliament at the IGC) speaking before the EP Committee on Constitutional Affairs on Monday afternoon. Practically no members of the Group chaired by Francisco Seixas da Costa cited concrete examples of possible recourse to this solution, added Mr Tsatsos, pointing out that only the possibilities of enhanced cooperation concerning European citizenship (for example, if three or four States wanted to decide, together, to authorise foreigners to become MEPs, he specified) and concerning police cooperation (Mr Brok was speaking, noted Mr Tsatsos). The Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di sinistra), felt that enhanced cooperation should be considered as a sort of "safeguard clause" to be used only if the integration process is "blocked".
According to Mr Tsatsos, the Sintra meeting confirmed the divergence that exists between the countries which are in favour of facilitating, "at all costs", the triggering of enhanced cooperation, mainly with a view to the next EU enlargement, and those which are sceptical and do not see any reason to amend the Treaty. Mr Brok, however, said he had the "feeling" that there was already a certain consensus on how appropriate it is to eliminate the veto against any decision to launch strengthened cooperation. In his view, once the number of Member States needed to set enhanced cooperation on track has been established, it will be necessary to differentiate between cooperation which has "legislative" effect (for which it would be necessary to have at least half of the Member States) and simple "actions" carried out thanks to enhanced cooperation (for which one third of Member States would be enough). Matters of legislation "cannot work without Parliament", and the Parliament must function "as a whole", remarked Mr Brok (thus touching on a matter of concern to Dutch Christian Democrat Hanja Maij-Weggen, who justified her scepticism on the subject of enhanced cooperation by problems of "democratic legitimacy". "I have the feeling", added Mr Brok (adding "a feeling, and nothing more") that "a series of Member States" plan to go forward at the IGC concerning enhanced cooperation, because they feel that the Intergovernmental Conference will hardly make any progress on extension of qualified majority. The main aim of this negotiation is precisely to enlarge the scope of qualified majority, and one must therefore not decide "in advance" that, at the end of the day, only a small group of countries will be able to go ahead, said Mr Brok, who found the meeting in Sintra "interesting", but felt that one should now concentrate more on extending qualified majority, and then go on to enhanced cooperation shortly afterwards. "It must not be the other way round", he insisted.
Austrian Green member Johannes Voggenhuber confirmed his "reserved" attitude on enhanced cooperation, and asked what "really happens" when this kind of cooperation is launched. Does speed pick up, or is the direction fixed?, he asked, considering that, when it is a question of establishing the "direction" to take, one third of Member States is not enough.