Brussels, 06/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The French Presidency has adopted the formula of holding a "conclave" (at which, for each Member State, only the foreign minister, the member of the Vimont Group and an adviser will participate) in order to make negotiations on institutional reform move forward, on Sunday afternoon. The exchange of views will cover three themes: vote weighting in Council; enhanced cooperation; and revision of Article 7 of the Treaty relating to violations of fundamental principles. On this last point, the Ministers will have the Commission's proposal for introducing a surveillance and early warning mechanism, involving the possibility of a recommendation and the ability for the State, which may be at fault, to present its observations before any sanction is imposed (see EUROPE of 5 October, p.3). The proposal comes in addition to those which had been introduced earlier on the same subject by Belgium, Austria and the Presidency.
On Monday early afternoon the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) will meet formally for negotiating reform. First of all it will hold the usual meeting with the President of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, and then it will take stock of the state of progress of work and prepare the informal summit of Biarritz on the following Friday and Saturday. The aim is to set out key questions to which the heads of State and government would be invited to reply, concerning the four essential aspects of reform: a) composition and internal organisation of the European Commission; b) vote weighting within the Council; c) extension of qualified majority vote to new fields; d) enhanced cooperation.