Brussels, 15/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The EU Council Presidency has diffused the provisional text of the Treaty of Nice, as approved by the Intergovernmental Conference on institutional reform. In order to become final, the text must be the subject of legal and linguistic revision, a task the Fifteen will get down to next week with the assistance of the European Commission. The aim is to complete this tricky task under French presidency, before the end of the year.
It should be considered that this 108- page text contains a large number of articles that were not discussed in Nice by the Heads of Government, as they had already been finalised at the level of foreign ministers. This is above all the case for: 1) provisions on security and defence; 2) the role of Eurojust; 3) the creation of the committee for social protection; 4) the new provisions relating to the Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance (with the protocol on their new statute) and the Court of Auditors, as well as, for some aspects, to the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.
In addition, the interpretation of certain Summit decisions must be clarified (for example, concerning several aspects of the institutional functioning of "enhanced cooperation").
The European Commission's spokesman's service denied that at any stage in negotiations in Nice the Commission had been ignored or put to one side, but pointed out that the Commission itself felt it was not able to fully play its role as mediator. It is true that the question on which most discussion was focused - vote re-weighting between member States - was eminently intergovernmental. The Commission, however, remains convinced that the "Community method" founded on the Parliament/Council/Commission triangle must be respected and continue to represent the basis of institutional functioning. It considers that the way the European Council operates should be the subject of indepth reflection with a view to its improvement (something that was, moreover, recognised by several heads of government).