Brussels, 16/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - As already indicated (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.8), the President of the Preparatory Group for the Intergovernmental Conference on institutional reform of the EU, Francisco Seixas da Costa, presented to the press a report by the Presidency to the European Council in Feira on institutional reform. This 118 page report includes:
- a first part on the progress of the work of the Conference, concerning the Commission, weighting of votes in the Council, extension of qualified majority voting, the European Parliament, Court of Justice and Court of First Instance, other EU bodies and institutions (Court of Auditors, Economic and Social Committee, Committee of the Regions), other issues (including Article 7 of the Treaty and presentation/organisation of the Treaties) and enhanced cooperation (see below);
- a second part containing texts and tables, with suggestions for amendment of Treaty articles (the Presidency notes that these are not formal proposals, just contributions to the debate, presented in the light of the discussions of recent months).
Concerning Article 7 (sanctions against a Member State for "serious and ongoing" infringement of the principles on which the Union is based, set out in Article 6, namely liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, an article on which Austria, the country currently most concerned, and Belgium have tabled proposals at the IGC, Ed.), the Presidency suggests a new paragraph to be added to the existing Article 7 establishing the following: to prevent any Member State from infringing the principles of Article 6, the Council, acting by a majority of nine tenths of its members, on a proposal from one third of the Member States and the Commission, may observe, after receiving assent from the European Parliament, that the danger of such infringement exists in a Member State and may forward an appropriate recommendation to the state in question, after having invited its government to present its observations on the matter.
and the domains, while reinforcing the role of the Commission and "the general motivation obligation."
Finally, as for the possible extension of qualified majority to taxation, the Presidency while recognising that certain Member States insist on maintaining unanimity for all the fiscal domains, consider the possibility of renouncing it for the provisions closely liked to the internal market, as with those aiming to avoid the double imposition or the non-imposition of cross-border revenues, to fight against fraud and tax evasion or the modernisation and simplification of the existing Community rules, or even tax measures whose only aim is the protection of the environment.
As for strengthened co-operation, the report notes, in particular, that after the initial discussions, the present arrangements for making the system more flexible could be studied by renouncing to all procedures that could be assimilated to a veto and by reducing the minimum level of Member States presently required, and that the conditions placed on strengthened co-operations could be different according to the pillars.