Brussels, 27/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - Speaking before the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs, the EP's representatives in the IGC, Elmar Brok (CDU) and Dimitris Tsatsos (Pasok), expressed their concerns regarding the negotiations over institutional reform, and considered that, should the reform be achieved on the basis of the texts currently on the table, Parliament would be obliged to say "no" to such a result. If Nice fails, they went on to warn, the European Parliament would certainly have difficulties in saying "yes" to any future EU enlargement.
Elmar Brok, who spoke of a certain amount of lack of sensitivity on the part o the "large" countries in relation to the "small" ones, considered that, regarding the composition of the European Commission, there could be a move towards a two-stage system, with first one Commissioner per Member State and then (for example, from a Union with 27 members) a Commission with a ceiling, with rotation: according to the German MEP, it is a question of seeing whether, in Nice, this will already be incorporated in the Treaty or whether they would simply agree on a "rendez-vous" clause, envisaging a reduced Commission from, for example, 2010. Mr. Brok also regretted that negotiations over the extension of qualified majority voting had hardly progressed on essential issues, and that co-decision was not being accepted by all Member States as corollary to qualified majority voting. Despite the backing of at least ten Member States, the proposals of the French Presidency ignores the EP's request to secure co-decision in cases (like the CAP) where qualified majority voting is already provided for, Brok noted. Regarding the weighting of votes in Council, however, he said that the IGC seemed to be moving towards a formula taking account, as Parliament wishes, of the need for decisions taken to have the backing of both a majority of Member States and a majority of the population.
As for Dimitris Tsatsos, he regretted the fact that the request of the European Parliament in its assent on the triggering of enhanced cooperation should not have received unanimity, even though other European Parliament demands on the subject seem to have been well received in the IGC. The Greek MEP also criticized the French Presidency, stating that, whereas nine Member States have clearly declared themselves in favour of incorporating the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Treaty (or at least reference to the Charter in Article 6 of the Treaty) and that three States that are still not in favour could review their positions, the Presidency continues to follow the minority position of the three Member States that are against such an incorporation or reference.