Brussels, 19/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - During a seminar organised on Monday by the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw, Commissioner Barnier stressed several key principles that the European Commission would like to find in the organisation and objectives of the European Union's new institutional reform.
The form of the Convention - that should prepare for reform before being negotiated and adopted by the Fifteen in the context of an Intergovernmental Conference - is "open", according to the Commissioner, who hopes to see at least national and European parliamentarians there, as well as the Commission and the Member States. He drew attention to the "importance of the president of this convention, whose authority should be undisputed". He also stressed that, in his view, the candidate countries should be involved in the same way as Member States, not only with representatives from their governments but also representatives of their parliaments. The IGC would, on the other hand, be reserved to Member States only, with observer status for countries that have signed but not yet ratified their accession treaty. In order for the Convention to have quality results, it would, he said, be necessary to avoid seeking consensus at all cost, in order to keep strong ambitions, and if necessary it should propose several options.
The "notion of European project" must be "central" to the discussions, said Michel Barnier, who said there was a "certain contradiction" in the fact that one should seek to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the Union institutions, for example by moving towards a federation, while reducing the scope of the European project, by challenging the "financial solidarity between Member States" and expressing the determination to keep security and defence as intergovernmental issues as well as police and justice issues. The Commissioner considers that the debate on EU powers should "focus on clarifying powers, and not bringing them into question". He recalls, moreover, that he has, over the past two years, defended the notion of a constitutional treaty, but that "the notion of constitution is ambiguous" and that one should see whether the Union is really ripe for moving in this direction and whether the word constitution is appropriate when conducting the current debate".
"It is necessary to reflect on each component part of European power". For legislative power, the Commissioner would have liked to "amplify the role of EP legislator (codecision)", "clarify the role of the Council" and "reflect on the question of national parliaments, which is first of all a national issue". For the European Executive, it would be necessary to "strengthen the Commission's democratic legitimacy with the election of its president", "preserve its independence" and "better conceive its central executive role and its collaboration with the Member States for implementation of common policies".