Brussels, 26/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - Speaking before the EPC in Brussels last week, Peter Sutherland, Chairman of the Advisory Board of The European Policy Centre (and former European Commissioner for competition as well as former GATT director) took the defence of the European Commission: as a whole it has performed admirably, and should not be marginalised by being turned into a sort of "secretariat", he said. Mr. Sutherland finds the trend towards intergovernmentalism "very worrying", and regrets that the majority of the governments of the EU Member States, "with the exception of the Benelux countries, seem to be going down that road today". The real problem is the Council, Sutherland declared, who, while recognising "the excellence" of Javier Solana, especially criticised the setting up in the Council, rather than in the Commission, a foreign policy and defence civil service.
Answering questions, Mr. Sutherland also turned to: - company mergers and State aid, criticising Member States which challenge the powers of the European Union in this field; - human rights, social rights and the WTO, considering that other international organisations were there to deal with these issues, and that it would not therefore be realistic to deal with them within the WTO.