Brussels, 30/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - In the latest issue of "Nouvel Observateur", Jacques Delors confirmed and clarified his position on the future of Europe. He divided his reasoning into three parts:
I. What reasonable finalities for Greater Europe? Enlargement remains "our priority aim, but common sense requires recalling that the more members in the Union, the more it is difficult to push forward political integration, aim of the founding fathers. It is also appropriate to set reasonable targets for the Greater Europe, in retreat from the aims posted in the Single Act and the Maastricht Treaty (…): an active area of peace, the framework for sustainable development and, finally, an area of values lived in the diversity of our cultures and our traditions."
II. The method. While recognising "the weight of institutional practices, Jacques Delors underlines that "the more we are numerous, the more the Community method is required as the only one able to reconcile efficiency, readability and democratic control" and that "the European Commission is at the heart of the provision, with its monopoly over initiative maintained": it must open the path, prepare decisions, make the rules of the game be respected, etc. A renewed General Affairs Council, meeting twice per month in Brussels, will ensure the priorities and the coherence and will carefully prepare the European Council. In the Parliament, increasingly involved in the role of colegislator, it will also be responsible, in liaison with the national parliaments, to bring European policy closer to the citizens.
III. The vanguard. "This is not an elitist formula commanding certain countries to being permanently in a sort of carriage (…), but an open structure to those who want and who can and want to join it." The aim is to "return the impetus enabling certain countries to explore uncharted lands of external and defence policy cooperation and also the optimal achievement of the economic, ecological and social integration". The form will be that of a "federation of nation States". The links with the Greater Union will be ensured by the existence of a "common Commission, responsible for the coherence between the two groupings and the respect for the rules of the Community acquis. On the other hand, the vanguard will have its own Council of Ministers and its own Parliament.