Brussels, 04/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has approved a proposal for an addition to Article 7 of the Treaty that it proposes that Member States adopt in the framework of the current Intergovernmental conference (IGC) on institutional reform. Article 7 provides for sanctions in case of serious and persistent breaches of the fundamental principles upon which the Union is founded; the Commission proposes heading this article with a new paragraph introducing a surveillance and warning mechanism that would precede any sanction and provide the country under examination with the possibility of submitting its observations before any deliberation.
The text of paragraph 1 of Article 7 that the Commission proposes is worded as follows:
"The Council deciding with a majority of two thirds of its Members following a proposal from one third of the Member states, the European Parliament or the Commission, may determine that there exists a threat of a breach by a Member State of the principles mentioned in Article 6, paragraph 1 and address an appropriate recommendation to the Member State concerned after hearing the government of that Member State".
Michel Barnier, Commissioner responsible for institutional reform, commented on this initiative as follows:
"Earlier this year, I already mentioned that it would be useful to add a preventive mechanism to Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union. This article currently makes it possible only to penalise collectively violations of fundamental rights, but does not permit collective action to prevent such violations. I firmly believe that the Member states of the Union should collectively be given the means to engage in a preventive political dialogue".