Florence, 12/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - How do you prepare for the next reform of the Treaty ? In answer to this question during the "Jean Monnet Lecture" that he gave at the European University Institute in Florence, Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen felt that a "convention" might bring together the representatives of the European institutions and governments and parliaments of the member states and the candidate countries. "With open sessions, fully accessible documentation and hearings with representatives and organisations from the public, a convention might also lend a very necessary transparency to the process", noted Mr Lipponen, for whome the convention should set to work as quickly as possible after the Laeken summit next December, and submit "specific proposals and options" for mid-2003. The agenda for the debate on Europe should, "clearly", remain "open", stated Mr Lipponen, who raised the issues quoted in Nice:
- Charter of fundamental rights. For him, it is not "necessarily an easy task to try to include the Charter as it stands into the treaties and to treat it, in its current form, as a legally binding document". But, as the Charter "clearly has a central role amongst the documents setting out the Union's objectives, we should try to reflect that too in the treaties in the appropriate manner". The IGC 2004 should therefore "amend the Treaty so as to allow the European Community to adhere to the European Convention on human rights".
- delimitation of competences. "I would not like to offer definitive answers. I would prefer to underline that the Union is not about clearly divided competences, but rather about sharing the competences amongst member states and institutions of the Union", said Mr Lipponen. The competences should be defined more clearly , but "I don't think that a list of competences is the right answer", states Mr Lipponen, who fears that "if we try to solve the problem through overly detailed provisions in the Treaty - and which can only be modified by the IGCs - we would be embarking on an impossible project. And we could even harm the Union's capacity to maintain its dynamism and respond to new demands in a rapidly changing environment." "What those who propose a delimitation of competences are really looking for is still not clear", observed Mr Lipponen, who is keen to underline that, for Finland, strong community institutions are "crucial for the running of the Union". "Equality between member states should be safeguarded. I would not like to see the integration of our common policies going backwards. For example, an effective competition policy, implemented by the Commission, is a key part of the single market", he said.
- role of the national Parliaments. Mr Lipponen fully approves of the idea to "link the parliaments more closely for the development of the Union", and hopes that "the convention will be able to submit proposals in this direction", but he thinks that the creation of "new layers in the institutional structure of the Union may not be the best solution, if the aim is to increase democracy, to bring together the Union of its citizens and to maintain an effective decision-making system in the enlarged Union". For him, there should perhaps be more focus on "the means by which the member states might strengthen their own information systems and by implication national parliaments into EU policy". Finland, he pointed out, has "an advanced system of large-scale consulation with Parliament, but is probably not without failings. The amount of EU legislation sometimes complicates the separation of the most politically important issues by comparison with the piles of proposals stuffed with technical details".
- configuration of the treaties. They must be "simplified and codified", acknowledged Mr Lipponen, as he praised the remarkable work that the Insitute of Florence has already done in this area.
Finally Mr Lipponen underlines that the citizens must be more aware of the "Union's added value", and also be "directly involved in the debate on what the Union should do and on how it should be organised for this purpose". The encouragement of public debate which is "genuine, free of restrictions and paternalism, is an urgent task for our governments", said Mr Lipponen, for whom there is a need "to ensure that there is always a link between political will and public opinion, even if sometimes one anticipates the other". In addition, he feels that including candidate countries in this process lends "fresh dynamism" to the debate, and does not share the fears of those who fear a dilution of the Union as a result of the enlargement. "It will be a new kind of Union, but with an enlarged community founded on common principles, integrated policies and effective institutions, could prove to be a stronger political player than it is today", he said. And, by calling for "community method" as opposed to the trend to intergovernmentalism, he said: "We defend our national interests by looking after the common good and by making the Union a stronger player (...) We have benefited from this policy, which has made Finland's international position stronger than ever since independence in 1917".
European Parliament plenary session