Brussels, 12/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - In view of adopting it final position on the Treaty of Nice, the European Parliament invites the Member States to undertake to introduce improvements in the Treaty in the accession treaties and in the post Nice process, and to already start before the end of 2001 working on concrete methods and content for this process. This is what asserts a document drafted by Elmar Brok, Markus Ferber and Peter-Michael Mombauer, unanimously adopted last week by the European MPs from the CDU/CSU, and outlining the demands of the German members of the EPP-ED group, in view of the vote, during the plenary of the month of May, on the report by Inigo Mendez de Vigo (Partido Popular, Spain) and by Antonio Jose Seguro (Socialist, Portuguese) on the Treaty of Nice and the post Nice process.
When presenting the document to the press, Elmar Brok, underlined the responsibility which falls on the European Council of Laeken on 14 and 15 December in the process for the ratification of the Treaty of Nice, given the link made between the concrete undertakings that the Heads of State and Government will be ready to assume at that time on the future of Europe and the positive vote by the European Parliament. This link between Laeken and our "yes" to the Treaty is less explicit in the present version of the Mendez de Vigo/Seguro report, noted Mr Brok when answering a question, while noting that a majority of the MPs seem to want to establish such a link between the ratification of Nice and the Post Nice. As for the timetable, he adds that, according to the CDU/CSU members, the post Nice process should finish at the end of 2003 (thus, indicates the document, the European elections of 2004 will be able to unfold in knowledge of the result of this process). Does this mean a deepening before enlargement? Yes, we can say so, said Mr Brok when answering this question, while underlining that deepening will take place to the detriment of enlargement, and that we must not dismiss the signing of the first accession agreements by the end of 2002 or the beginning of 2003.
On the same occasion, Hartmut Nassauer also raised the procedure which, he said, is of a certain priority for us, and insisted on the establishment of a similar Convention to that which drafted the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, thus formed from government representatives, the European Commission, the European Parliament and national parliaments. We clearly refuse any "forum" or "Group of wise", asserts Mr Nassauer, when stating that the task must be entrusted to people whose legitimacy is unquestionable. Mr Nassauer also underlined the importance of the status of the results which the Convention will reach, when indicating that the CDU/CSU is considering two options: the first, going further, according to which the Member States will no longer be able to modify these results, and will only be able to accept them or reject them; - the second, which constitutes a "minimum requirement", according to which the recommendations from the Convention will be the "only basis for negotiations" by the intergovernmental Conference, which will be called following the works of the Convention. Mr Nassauer recalled that, before the Nice negotiation, the Group of wise chaired by Jean Dehaene had made a similar proposal to this last alternative, since it suggested that the only basis for negotiation is a proposal from the European Commission (that from the Convention would have "greater" legitimacy, he felt). Mr Nassauer welcomed, in this context, the position taken by the European affairs committee in the Bundestag, on 4 April, in favour of a Convention. The support of the national parliament towards this would be valuable, he felt.