Brussels, 14/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 18 September, the Intergovernmental Conference on institutional reform of the EU will hold, at foreign minister level, a session devoted to qualified majority/codecision and to the European Commission. The work will begin at 15h00, and negotiations on the future size and organisation of the Commission will be held in very restricted sittings. (On the subject of the discussions on the extension of qualified majority and codecision, which took place this week in the Vimont Group, see following pages, as well as EUROPE of 13 September, p.3, and 14 September, p.4).
Austrian Permanent Representative Gregor Woschnagg, when speaking to several journalists, recognised that a conflict is taking shape on the subject of the Commission between the large Member States (which insist on a College limited to twenty members or less) and the smallest Member States (which insist on the right of each country to appoint a European Commissioner). The large Member States, moreover, hinted that, unless their arguments prevail, they would no longer agree to give up their second Commissioner - which they have so far said they are willing to do if the IGC reaches re-weighting of votes in Council to take greater account of the demographic weight of each of the EU countries. (See in EUROPE of 6 September, p.6, for remarks by Pierre Moscovici, who, during the seminar of Notre Europe and Amis de l'Europe of Jacques Delors and Etienne Davignon, on 4 September in Paris, had indicated that, unless there is consensus at the IGC on a Commission with less Commissioners than Member States, one could not rule out the fact that some large Member States would call for keeping two Commissioners of their nationality).