Strasbourg, 04/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Johannes Rau, made a "plea for a European constitution" before the European Parliament on Wednesday. Nicole Fontaine, Parliament President, welcomed the presence of the president of Germany, whose new generations rightly consider they do not have to bear the weight of the past. The Treaty of Nice recognised the demographic weight of Germany but "all Member States expect it will continue to ensure that the Community spirit continues to prevail in European decisions on the numerical rule". Thanks to its experience of a federal organisation, Germany will play an important role in the reflection opened by the Nice Summit on the future of Europe, said Ms Fontaine. She does not doubt that Germany will remain attentive to the fact that the Union's financial effort in the enlargement context must not entail less effort for regional cohesion, economic disasters such as BSE and foot-and-mouth, and aid to the southern countries.
President Rau addressed the citizens at the beginning and at the end of his speech, which was often and very warmly applauded: Europe is becoming ever more concrete, ever more tangible for its citizens (in 271 days citizens will have a single currency in their pockets), and they will have far greater influence than many would have thought, he told them. To those who claim that a democratic process of the traditional kind is not possible in Europe because there is no single "European people", Mr Rau replies: the existence of different interests, that the peoples want to preserve, does not mean that they cannot fix common rules and methods for acting together towards a fixed goal. Johannes Rau believes there is only one solution: a European Constitution that would specify that Europe is not moving towards a centralised super-State but that it is a matter of building a federation of nation states. The German president said they should discuss content, not squabble over words. He hoped there would be a broader debate, in which objections are taken seriously. Personally, this is what I am doing, said President Rau, adding: those who are calling for a federation of nation states want quite the opposite to a European "super State" and the abolition of nation states. "We will need them and their distinctness for a good while yet, as guardians of diversity in Europe", he said. Mr Rau criticises the interpretation of those for whom the federation of nation states would mean a Europe "à la Federal Republic of Germany". It is quite the contrary, however, as a Federation characterised by the fact that every Member State makes its own sovereign decisions on its constitutions and system of government is the principle of political organisation that allows diversity of traditions to be safeguarded. "We therefore need a constitution for the very reason that we do not want to become a single centralised state", insisted Johannes Rau once more. He sees in this constitution a "grammar book of solidarity" allowing the sovereign people to define "to which values it is committed, in which spheres and to whom it delegates power and how it wants to organise and limit this power".
According to Mr Rau, the constitution should be divided into three parts, comprising: - the Charter of Fundamental Rights; - the dividing of competences between the member states on one hand and the Union on the other, with the anchoring of the principle of subsidiarity on a broader basis and the explicit definition of the competences reserved to Member States, mainly to face up to the fear of "creeping centralisation" in Europe (although "I know that even an ideal delimitation of competences will not spare us conflicts in future", he said); - the future framework of European institutions. The Council and the Parliament should, says Mr Rau, become a "genuine bicameral parliament", the first chamber of state being to preserve the nation-states' sovereignty, and the second to represent the citizens. The Commission, Mr Rau said, is too often merely made a scapegoat. He recognised that the Commission's democratic legitimacy must be strengthened: the president could be elected directly by the people or by the two chambers of Parliament (the solution President Rau prefers). One must ensure at any rate that the Commission keeps its right of own initiative and remains the advocate in defence of the Community's interests, he said. The debate on the future of Europe should be conducted in a broader context than that of an intergovernmental conference of the classical kind, concluded Mr Rau, considering that no European body has worked as well as the Convention responsible for drafting the European Charter of Fundamental Rights which carried out and achieved an "exemplary" task. Therefore, said Mr Rau, it is necessary to choose a "broad forum" involving all citizens including accession candidates, as the future of the European constitution will, tomorrow, also be their constitution.