Berlin, 15/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Berlin Congress allowed the European People's Party to strengthen its internal cohesion and assert its desire to "take-up the reins of the European building process", felt the President of the EPP Wilfried Martens when closing on 13 January the 14th Party Congress, after the vote on the document on ""A Union of Values" and numerous resolution covering in particular the Nice European Council and post-Nice (see below). "We do not want to vote against the Nice Treaty, even if it is extremely imperfect", because we do not want to compromise the enlargement of the EU, announced Mr Martens, who also welcomed the establishment of a working group which, lead by the former CDU President Wolfgang Schauble, will study the identity and finality of Europe. Mr Martens, in this speech as in others during this Congress, wanted to confirm, with regards to the values on which the EPP is based, the validity of the basic programme adopted in Athens.
Saturday in Berlin, the Congress modified the status if the EPP by adopting amendments presented by the Political Office of the Party, including one through which it asserted the "common desire to found a Federal European Union as a union of free people and citizens conscious of their responsibilities", phrase in which the words "Federal European Union" replace "United States of Europe" (modifications felt as a step back by certain delegates, while the majority felt it acceptable). Another modification aims to indicate that, other that the EU accession candidate countries, also the States that are part of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe may acquire the status of observer in the EPP.
"We cannot agree with the Nice Treaty", exclaimed for his part the President of the EPP/DE group (European People's Party/European Democrats) in the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pottering, who recalled that the Parliament will definitively vote on the Treaty by voting on a report that must be drafted by the Constitutional Committee. However we must already give clear signals, and say in particular that the Intergovernmental formula is "outdated", announced Mr Pottering. It is now necessary to have a conferences not only with the Member States, but also with the European Parliament, national Parliaments and the Commission (which must make proposals), he felt, while calling on the Council to "open doors". The CDU member also asserted that a debate "must start today" over the demarcating of competence between the EU and the Member States, and that it would then be for the latter to define the competence that must been acted at the regional or communal level. The Council is "the weakest link" in the institutional chain, said Mr Pottering, while stating: "We are European Federalists, we will never allow for the European Commission to be weakened!". After the victory of the EPP in the last European elections, the fact that the Commission is mainly made up of socialists is "a falsification of the voters will", stated Mr Pottering, by calling for " a new system" for the future. Furthermore, when noting that the EPP/DE group in the Parliament hosts 36 British Conservatives (while the British Conservative Party is not a member of the EPP), Mr Pottering noted that the discussion with the Tories over institutional issues is, "naturally, a hard discussion", but that, with most of them, cooperation in "fair". "We, as EPP MEPs, will never make concessions to the British Conservatives when it is a case of defending our Europe", assured Mr Pottering. Furthermore, he cited a study by a London institute according to which the 31 parties have members in the EPP group and have shown "unity" in the 87% the nominal votes in plenary and, over this quantitative development of this type of vote, he added that, according to the same study, the MEPs from Forza Italia were those who had shown "the greatest loyalty".
As for Nicole Fontaine, President (Christian Democrat) of the European Parliament, she noted that "Nice has not brought any answers, other than the differed answer, programmed for 2004, to this central question that, confusedly or clearly, is now being increasingly asked by the citizens: towards which type of Europe are we going and want we to go?". "I am not sure that it is finally possible to do better" in Nice, in Nice, because the three issues that were the focus of the IGC, which, it was said too rapidly, would be settled within two weeks, were closely linked to the definition of the European project for the future, while the substantive debate on the "qualitative future" of Europe was "dodged", admitted Ms Fontaine. An Intergovernmental Conference "cannot conceive and settle at the same time" because it is too subject to national interests, she said, before going on to add: "This is why I hope to propose to the Conference of European Parliament Presidents that our institution should now make a very strong initiative, by initiating a permanent platform, open to the civil society and to the national parliaments that accept it. The European Parliament would thus be in its role as representative of the peoples of the Union, at the forefront of reflection in Europe and involving the most concerned of our citizens. Regarding citizens' "aspiration" to have a "clarification of competencies", Ms Fontaine affirmed that it is necessary to begin developing a Constitution for Europe as establishing a Constitution is tantamount to saying what one can or must do. Considering that the traditional sovereignty of States is not only affected by the European integration process, but also by the "thrust of regionalisation", she remarked: "Between an 'all Europe' that would be imposed in an anarchic manner and an 'all national or regional' that would be just as paralysing, political reflection has to date remained too general or ideological".
Resolution of the EPP Group affirming that final evaluation of Nice Treaty must take into account concrete progress already made in the post-Nice process
The Berlin Congress adopted by unanimity less ten abstentions a resolution presented by the EPP Group of the European Parliament, mainly affirming that the post-Nice process should offer "clear perspectives and commitments" to overcome the "shortcomings" of Nice, and that the final evaluation of the Treaty of Nice should take into account concrete progress made, before the ratification of the Treaty, in the post-Nice process. MEP Jean-Louis Bourlanges announced the abstention of the members of the UDF because, in this text, account was not taken of an amendment by another MEP UDF member, Alain Lamassoure, who tempered the excessive "optimism" of the first paragraph of the resolution regarding the results of the IGC. A second paragraph brings nuance to this positive appreciation, but Mr Lamassoure would have liked to also add a phrase stressing that, "in total, the Treaty of Nice is not the legal base that will allow democratic, transparent and efficient management of the enlarged Europe". Mr Pöttering answered Mr Lamassoure by saying that other proposals from them had been approved, above all that on the European Constitution. The text finally adopted mainly indicates that:
Nice clearly showed the limits of the intergovernmental method, and the working method chosen for the post-Nice process should therefore guarantee "the full participation of members of the European Parliament and the national parliaments". The EPP calls for the establishment of a conference based on the successful model of the Convention that prepared the Charter for Fundamental Rights, a Convention that must have efficient internal decision-making rules and involving advice from outside experts via specialised working groups.
The post-Nice agenda will be finally decided upon under Belgian Council Presidency in Laeken (Ed.: next 14/15 December). It must be sufficiently open to allow the shortcomings of Nice to be overcome. In this context, the EPP calls for the division of competences between the European Union and the Member States as well as between the Institutions to be clarified "within the framework of a constitutional treaty", and the Swedish Presidency should stimulate broad public debate on such issues.
Mr Pöttering is called on to invite, the European Union Heads of State and Government to a bi-annual joint meeting, in order to "strengthen the voice of the elected representatives of the people in the process of European integration", with a view to the meeting in 2004.
CDU/CSU Resolution on "completing European integration"
The Congress also unanimously adopted a resolution presented by the CDU/CSU called "Berlin Document: Completing European Integration", which mainly affirms:
The main challenge for the future will be to preserve the rich diversity of the peoples, nations and regions of Europe, and, at the same time, give their cooperation a new political shape by completing the process of European integration. The EPP states it is convinced that identifying what the peoples of Europe hold in common and defining Europe's conception of itself is the basis for determining the political shape of Europe.
The EU must define its geographical extent, in order to understand itself. After the next enlargement, the European Union will be made up of 27 Member States, but other countries will be claiming this perspective during the next years, which means that the "geographical shape of the EU remains an open question for an indefinite period", while Europe needs certainty about itself".
Geographical enlargement should not "overcharge its capability for integration" of Europe, and the EPP therefore calls for the boundaries of the EU to be "indicated clearly but openly", for example by offering forms of "institutionalised cooperation to countries which do not want to be, or cannot be, eventually accepted as full members".
The European Union "can best find expression in a constitutional treaty" which clarifies the relation between the European institutions and the Union and Member States, and the work of drafting this treaty should begin immediately, and involve candidate countries. According to the text, "in the case of shared responsibility, mainly in the economic area, the direction is defined jointly by all, but each defines its separate path".
A number of tricky points in the document on the Union of Values
The vote on the Berlin base document, on "A Union of Values", brought about several changes to the text presented to the Congress (see EUROPE of 12 January, pages 5 and 6), mainly concerning:
The recognition of "other forms of life community" than the traditional family (amendment by the EPP/ED group at the European Parliament). Francesco Fiori (Forza Italia) deplored the fact that, for the first time, an official EPP text does not cite marriage as a basis for family life.
The inclusion, requested by the CSU, of a paragraph whereby "the State's obligation to provide some public services for people must not be unduly restricted by European rules".
On the other hand, the Congress rejected amendments by the European Union of Christian Democrat Workers (mainly aimed at stressing that the possibilities for the social partners to participate in European legislation have to be strengthened) and the EPP youth members (calling on the EU to scrupulously respect the neutrality of its Member States).
Furthermore, in the text presented to the Congress the heading on dialogue between Europe and Islam had been replaced by the wording "Arab-European Dialogue", but Karl Lamers (who was elected Vice-President of the EPP, and also the former Portuguese Foreign Minister, Durao Barroso) remarked that the resolution spoke of an Islamic world from Morocco to Iran and that Iran is not an Arab country. Either, he said, we remove the reference to Iran, which would "not be intelligent", or we do not remain consistent to ourselves. The result was that the initial wording was kept.
The former president of the Christian Democrat Group at the European Parliament, Italian Christian Democrat Barbi, commented on this vote saying that, despite his fears, he found in this text the values to which he was attached. He said in this connection that he had fought energetically against enlargement of the EPP to parties that are not of Christian Democrat inspiration.