Brussels, 05/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - Resumption of work of the Intergovernmental Conference on the reform of the European institutions, in Brussels on Monday, confirmed the existence of great differences between Member States. Four months from the scheduled end of these negotiations, "it is clear that so far we have not made much progress", a diplomat confided. The "preparatory group" nevertheless began work with determination, beginning with the subjects of the extension of voting through qualified majority in Council and "enhanced cooperation" between some countries, and "one senses that there are interesting vibrations", a French spokesperson said on Tuesday. This "limbering up" inaugurated the weekly rhythm that the meetings of the IGC will continue until the "test" European Council of Biarritz, on 9 October. Resolved to continue to apply pressure on its partners, the French Presidency of the Council retains as absolute priority to "succeed in Nice" (in December), as French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine repeated this weekend in Evian.
On Monday, the French Presidency submitted an extensive list of articles for which the move to qualified majority voting could be envisaged. No such list has so far been the subject of agreement between the Fifteen, but "we now have a clear picture of the stances of the Member States, article by article, which should facilitate later work", a French diplomat commented. "The most difficult aspects are tax and social security", he explained. In these two domains, where extension to qualified majority voting is only being envisaged for specific issues, some delegations (UK notably) have important objections, and the Presidency will have to re-think its project. The fifteen proved to be more reconciling in other fields, like the environment (where only a marginal pat of the decisions, linked to territorial sovereignty, demands unanimity) and trade policy. They did however rule out making a systematic link between majority decision-making in Council and co-decision with the European Parliament.
A shorter discussion was held on enhanced cooperation. The Presidency's paper was generally well received. It recalls the major principles of this instrument (factor of integration, cooperation open to all Member States, not having to constitute an obstacle to trade or create distortions to competition between Member States, etc.) and proposes excluding this type of cooperation in certain fields like the functioning of the single market, conditions for access to the single currency, rules affecting citizenship in the Union and funds for structural or cohesion purposes. The minimum number of States being envisaged to trigger this kind of cooperation is a third of Member States, "but the conditions for granting approval for triggering enhanced cooperation could be modulated dependent on the number of participants", the document stipulates. According to a French representative, the reluctance on the part of certain delegations, like Spain, seemed to be smoothed out on Monday. "The camp of total opponents to enhanced cooperation is diminishing", around the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland", he said.