Paris, 21/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The French Minister for European Affairs, Pierre Moscovici said on Saturday in a debate on the future of Europe (which, he remarked, the French government had been the first to launch, under the auspices of a group of high-profile people, chaired by Guy Braibant) priority has to go to the "substance" of the goals and the results, rather than institutional issues. Mr. Moscovici was closing a colloquium on "The Future of Europe's Political Construction", organized in Paris by the European Movement-France and CAFECS (Carrefour pour une Europe civique et sociale) for which Ms. Idrac and Messrs. Pascal and Viveret spoke. Confirming that Lionel Jospin would soon be speaking about the future of Europe, the minister welcomed the German contributions to the debate, while criticizing them, and in particular doubting the fact that "reducing the Council of Ministers to the rank of second Chamber and transforming the Commission into government directly elected by the European Parliament, as the SPD would like "could settle the problem of the democratic deficit in Europe. Mr. Moscovici did, however, speak in favour of the creation of a "genuine EU Council", of semi-permanent coordination, made up of ministers fully assuming the bridge between their national governments and Brussels", whereas he was sceptical over the possibility of adopting a European Constitution "without European people, without European state, without European nation and without constituency".
During the colloquium, Pier Virgilio Dastoli, General Secretary of the International European Movement, called for a combat in favour of a federal Europe, and Robert Toulemont (AFEUR) considered that "an intergovernmental vanguard" would be of no use and would lead to the hostility of those who were excluded, whereas a minority could not, in any sustained manner, oppose a majority of Member States determined to push ahead with integration, as the experience of Monetary Union has proved. The German political analyst, Franciszek Draus, for his part turned to the different German positions on the future of Europe, without dissimulating certain contradictions.