Brussels, 20/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has sent a "message to staff", signed by Michel Barnier (Commissioner for Institutional Reform) and President Romano Prodi, containing a "preliminary judgement" on the Treaty of Nice. The Commission explicitly states that the atmosphere of the Summit had been a prevailing "every man for himself" rather than a "one for all" approach and that several times the main question seemed "how to block" rather than "how to decide". It states "we need to remain vigilant and imaginative in our efforts to defend the Community method and the involvement of the Commission in any future discussions on the reform of the institutions".
We reproduce below the full text of this "message", not only for its political significance but also because it seeks to give a clear and simple summary of the content of the Treaty of Nice.
"Dear colleagues,
On the morning of Monday 11 December, after ten months of intense negotiations on the four conference subjects (size and composition of the Commission, weighting of votes in the Council, qualified majority in place of unanimity in decision-making procedures and enhanced cooperation), the European Council concluded the Intergovernmental Conference by adopting a new Treaty.
The Treaty of Nice is not an end in itself. It is merely a means of preparing for the historic goal of uniting Europe. The Treaty was drawn up with difficulty in an atmosphere where attitudes of "every man for himself" prevailed over a "one for all" approach. More than once, the main issue seemed to be "how to block", rather than "how to decide". The final result shows a real gap between the provisions adopted by 15 Member States and the challenge of operating with 25 or 30. We can make only an initial assessment of the outcome of this IGC, as the final text of the Treaty of Nice is not yet available.
1. The Nice European Council did not leave any issues pending
The European Council, meeting as an intergovernmental conference, dealt with the four issues on the agenda. In some cases, the decision taken at Nice will be implemented at a future date. This applies, for example, to cohesion policy, to which qualified-majority voting will apply only as of 2007, and to asylum policy, to which qualified-majority voting will apply after the adoption of general rules. As regards the composition of the Commission, the Heads of State and Government decided to keep one Commissioner per Member State until the 27th Member State joins the Union. When the Union has 27 members, there will be fewer Commissioners than there are Member States. An egalitarian rotation system was agreed, but the precise number of Commissioners will be decided unanimously by the Council beneath a ceiling set at 26.
2. The Community method was not sufficiently preserved
The Community method, i.e. the interplay between the three institutions (Parliament, Council and Commission) was preserved, but was not enhanced.
Decisions in 30 areas, currently taken unanimously, will be adopted by qualified majority following ratification of the Treaty of Nice. This reform is quantitatively important. Qualitatively speaking, it is less so. While the Community will, from now on, be able to exercise its powers better as regards services and intellectual property, the veto was none the less maintained in respect of a number of major Community policies (taxation, coordination of social security rules, and the environment), even if sometimes only partly or temporarily (asylum, immigration and cohesion). It is not a satisfactory result. Preservation of the veto increases the risks of blocking and of inconsistency in our policies in an enlarged Union.
Conditions for the operation of enhanced cooperation under the first pillar were improved: eight Member States may decide to cooperate more closely following approval within the Council by qualified majority. The possibility of requesting the European Council's unanimous opinion was replaced by the possibility of referral to the European Council. As regards the second pillar, new possibilities for enhanced cooperation were confined to foreign policy actions. The Commission will have to analyse these new provisions and assess how they may be put to use to achieve this Commission's work programme.
3. The institutions will continue to be effective
The Commission remains a collegiate institution. The powers of its President have been increased. The number of Members of the European Parliament is not to exceed 732. The court system has been reformed to enable the Community courts to function and deliver verdicts within a reasonable period of time even after enlargement. Some thirty Member States will implement the established body of EU law and the number of questions of interpretation and explanations of Community law are going to increase. The reform of the court system adopted at Nice is essential to safeguard EU law and ensure that it is applied consistently.
A new system for weighting votes in the Council will be introduced. The texts will be finalised in the course of next week and they should then be examined in detail. However, it appears clear that the effect of the new system will be to make it more difficult to reach decisions after enlargement than is the case today.
We are pleased with the decision to gradually start holding all meetings of the European Council in Brussels. This change will help to streamline the organisation of European Councils.
4. Greater democracy
The role of Parliament has been strengthened in several areas. The codecision procedure will be used to a greater extent. Parliament will be able to ask the Court of Justice to monitor compliance with Community law in the same way as the other institutions. A specific new legal basis, proposed by the Commission, will make it possible to adopt a statute for political parties. As the Commission wished, and on the basis of the proposal we presented, the Treaty now makes provision for an early warning system, making it possible to prevent, rather than penalise, serious and persistent breaches of fundamental rights by Member States. For its part, since the Commission presented its opinion last January, it has provided impetus and acted as the driving force during the negotiations. The roots of the reform of the court system, the rationalisation of procedures for closer cooperation, the introduction of a democratic early warning system and the launching of an institutional debate after Nice can all be found in the Commission proposals, notably in its opinion of 26 January 2000. All the Commission departments have joined forces in a remarkable collective effort, and we thank them for that. In particular, we thank the Secretariat-General's IGC unit, under Pieter van Nuffel, for all its efforts during the negotiations. The results reflect only part of this work and the Treaty of Nice has not achieved everything we would have liked. In future, we will need to remain vigilant and imaginative in our efforts to defend the Community method and the involvement of the Commission in any future discussions on the reform of the institutions. In the institutional discussions planned for the Swedish and Belgian Presidencies, we will need to be firm and convincing in stressing the importance of the Community method and the balance between the institutions.
We count on your support.
Michel Barnier Romano Prodi