Brussels / Paris, 02/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The meeting of the Preparatory Group for the Intergovernmental Conference on the EU's institutional reform to be held on Tuesday 6 June (the last before the Ministerial session of the IGC in Luxembourg on 13 June and before the Feira Council of 19 and 20 June), will be an opportunity for its chairman, Francisco Seixas da Costa, to present the main elements of the Portuguese Presidency report for the Feira Summit, report that will make concrete proposals for amending the Treaty, as well as setting out the options, reflecting the state of work as perceived by the Presidency (on this subject, see EUROPE of 1 June, p.3).
In addition, the Group will continue its talks on Tuesday on the possibility of extending qualified majority voting in the Council, and, as Mr. Seixas da Costa said on Friday, also discuss issues relating to external relations (especially the WTO), and the Belgian proposal of amending Article 7 of the Treaty (Article that provides for sanctions against a Member State in case of breaches of the principles that lie at the root of European construction, and which Belgium has proposed to amend in the light of the Austrian affair: see EUROPE of 6 May, p.3).
Furthermore, "Le Monde" of 2 June says that is has learnt from German sources that, on the fringe of a meeting between the French Minister for European Affairs, Pierre Moscovici and German State Secretary Christoph Zoepel, France and Germany have reached an agreement of principle on the main issues negotiated in the IGC, and that a signal on this could come at the Franco-German summit in Mayence on 9 June. According to "Le Monde", the agreement especially concerns: - the weighting of votes in Council: France is said to have agreed to Germany having more votes than itself (and than the United Kingdom and Italy); - qualified majority voting: this would be the rule, and unanimity the exception. Unanimity would remain for decisions of a constitutional nature, on defence, for things demanding ratification by national parliaments, those affecting the very essence of the acquis communautaire and the internal market; - closer cooperation: Paris and Berlin are said to agree to abolishing the possibility of a veto against the triggering of that mechanism; - the European Commission: France and Germany are said to agree to the idea of a "substantially smaller college to the current number of twenty"; each country would propose a Commissioner, and the President of the Commission would choose; - the European Parliament: there would be a ceiling of 700 MEPs, and its spread would reflect the population of each Member State. In addition, each country would have a right to a minimum of 4 seats (but Luxembourg has disputed the reduction of its seats from 6 to 4: Ed.). According to "Le Monde", France has, moreover, decided to back the proposal of German as third official language of the European Union, alongside English and French.