Brussels, 20/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - During the Ministerial meeting of the Inter-Governmental Conference, the European Parliament's President, Nicole Fontaine, spoke about her institution's « growing concern about the outcome of the talks, particularly in the case of qualified majority voting. The approaches the Presidency is recommending for taxation, social policy, trade, the environment, the Structural Funds and domestic affairs do not go far enough, she said, adding that extending qualified majority voting to these key areas, which would be « highly desirable from now on »,
would become «inevitable" in an enlarged EU. According to her, a final compromise solution would involve setting deadlines in the Treaty (as in the case of Schengen and EMU), referring to period of three or four years or even five, depending on the issues involved. In the case of "ultra sensitive issues », instead of a fixed date, there could be minimum number of States, as a threshold for triggering the automatic switch to qualified majority voting. This could be 20 or 25 Member States, for example. She also regretted that the linkage between qualified majority voting and the co-decision procedure has not be asserted as « something that should be imposed by principle for issues already covered by qualified majority voting, such as agriculture and competition. She also said the European Parliament's role in EMU may be weakened by switching from the current cooperation procedure to a simple consultation, whereas from the point of view of full-blown European democracy, accountability to Parliament should be strengthened in this area.
She recalled that the Parliament: - highlights the need for Parliamentary assent in the process for authorising the application of enhanced cooperation - believes that all Council decisions should be backed by a simple majority of Member States representing half of the EU - wants to see the Charter of fundamental rights at least cited in the Treaty's Article 6.
MEP Statute: Ms Fontaine sees an agreement shaping up this year
On the issue of the MEP statute, Ms Fontaine expressed concern about the state of the Ministerial talks, which appeared to remain in a state of deadlock this morning, owing to the question of taxation. She still felt it should be possible to reach an agreement under the French Presidency, adding: "Should this deadlock continue, I would formally ask you that this issue be transferred from unanimity to qualified majority voting at the European Council of Nice". The dignity of the work of MEPs and equality among them must be recognised, whereas "the transparency of genuine expenses must be settled", said Ms Fontaine.