Brussels, 06/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The informal meeting of the preparatory group for the Intergovernmental Conference on reform of the institutions, which met on Saturday in Paris, allowed stock to be taken on three subjects in particular: extension of qualified majority vote in Council, enhanced cooperation and the re-weighting of votes in Council. Contrary to all expectations, it was on this last point, discussed over lunch, that the most favourable developments were noted. "Discussion became slightly more relaxed", says one European source, and "the principles were all there". For the most part, delegations agree that the votes of each State within the Council should be reviewed in such a way as to allow qualified majority vote in an enlarged Europe to correspond not only to a significant majority of the population but also to a majority of Member States, as such. At the present time, qualified majority vote still represents at least eight Member States and around 58% of the population, but this figure has decreased over the past twenty years with successive enlargements.
Two main options are open to the Fifteen for reassessing the weight of each Member State in Council decisions: simple re-weighting, to achieve a grid of the same kind as that which exists at present (x number of votes per State) or a double majority system (of population and of States).
fairly complicated system in the sense that we already know that future enlargements will especially be to the benefit "small" States, which nevertheless has the favour of the Commission and "small" Member States.. For each of these formulas, different models are being envisaged. The French Presidency should next week submit an explanatory document to its partners, to assess the repercussions more precisely. This highly political subject will necessarily by part of the final session of Nice and the implications of the different formulas will be better perceived.
The weighting of votes in Council was, with the size of the European Commission and the distribution of seats in the European Parliament, among the sensitive subjects excluded from the synthesis document prepared by the Presidency for Saturday's meeting. Presented as a working document, rather than a draft Treaty, this text comprises proposals regarding the wording on all other subjects on negotiations, of which the 45 articles for which the move from unanimiity to a majority is being considered in decision taking. The preparatory group for the IGC, Chaired by Pierre Vimont, France's Permanent Representative to the EU, broached more specifically four subjects for which the move to a qualified majority is contested: 1) tax; ii) social protection; iii) common trade policy; iv) and provisions regarding visas, asylum and immigration. Faced with the many exceptions, several delegations, like the European Commission, expressed their fears at seeing extension of qualified majority voting slowly being reduced to a small portion. Belgium and Finland even attacked the lack of ambition on the part of the Presidency, which the French spokesperson rejected on Monday.
"In certain cases, we have had to take into account the reservations expressed by the heads of State and Government during the Biarritz summit vis-à-vis qualified majority. On these issue, we try, while favouring the move towards qualified majority, to take these reservations into account" he explained. But there is a difference between "an ideal world" that would see a complete transition towards qualified majority, and the reality of things.
On the other hand the debate is more consensual over reinforced cooperation that some Member States may being between each other. "There is a desire to facilitate the use of reinforced cooperation compared to what is foreseen in the Amsterdam Treaty, on condition of maintaining the Community acquis", felt the French Presidency. The removal of the right to veto presently available to each state against the launch of such cooperation and the minimum level of Member States participating does not seem any more challenged. It remains to be specified: a) if some fields should be explicitly excluded from reinforced cooperation, b) what number of States participating in cooperation in the field of common foreign and security policy could be reduced (the figure most often cited is 5), c) what will be the role of the European Commission.
The Presidency called on the various delegations to react in writing to its summary document. "Our aim is to reach a treaty text proposal supported by nearly all. The Vimont group will gather on 13 November, to once more discuss qualified majority voting and the weighting of votes in the Council, before the Ministerial conclave on 19 November in Brussels.