Nice, 07/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The leaders of the main European parties - European People's party, European Socialist party and European Liberal Democrats - held their summit, on the eve of the European Council in Nice, in the presence of several Heads of Government of the EU Member States, and also from candidate countries.
The European People's Party, gathered for more than three hours in Juan-les-Pins under the Presidency of Wilfried Martens (the session was, it seems, rather animated), reaffirmed in particular the need for institutional reform to maintain the balance between small and large countries and that the Commission remains the engine of the European building process. Before the press, the UDF President (and MEP) Francois Bayrou reiterated his call in favour of a European Constitution that would notably make Europe more readable for the citizens.
The European Socialist party chaired by the German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping gathered in Antibes (Sophia Antipolis), with the notably participation of the French Minister for European Affairs Pierre Moscovici. The latter repeated before the press that the Nice Summit will not fail because of a France-German problem (over the number of votes in the Council). Mr Scharping indicated that the Italian-German proposal on the "post Nice" (see EUROPE of 6 December, p.4) aiming in particular to better set out the future competence at different levels, of the EU and the States. Mr Moscovici, when answering question, said that the Italian-German proposal was interesting, but that we will discuss the "post Nice" after Nice. In an article published by "Tiden", the newspaper of the Swedish Social Democrat Party, the Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson recognised the value of a new Conference entrusted in particular with clarifying the division of work between the EU and its Member States, while adding that the aim should be a Union of nation-States with equal rights.
As for the European Liberal Democrats, they gathered in Nice under the Presidency of Werner Hoyer. Before the press, the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt reaffirmed that the debate on the future of Europe must start after Nice: we, the future Belgian Presidency, "want a Brussels Declaration" (following the European Council in December 2001) indicating "the agenda and the method" to follow, he said. To the question of knowing if Belgium would accept that the Netherlands have in the future more votes in the Council, Mr Verhofstadt answered: yes, we can accept a "differentiation" between the Belgians and Dutch, but "if only if there is differentiation everywhere" ("I think that everybody understands want I am saying" he added, alluding, without naming it, to the problem of a possible "split" by Germany from the other "large" States). The most important, is to take into account the two elements, the peoples and the States, said Mr Verhofstadt, who felt that the introduction of double majority in the Council would be" the most simple and most logic action", but that in politics it is not always simplicity that wins. Alain Madelin, Liberal Democrat President (and member of the EPP group in the European Parliament) said during the same press conference that he had "a little sadness", that the EU Member States are behaving "as owners" in the joint European house, while "the time will very quickly come when everybody will have to be involved": according to him, "2001 will be the right time to gather in Convention the forces of the whole of Europe" to discuss the vision of the Europe of tomorrow.