Strasbourg, 05/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday evening in Strasbourg, MEPs gave the European Commission's White Paper on Governance which had just been officially presented to them by President Romano Prodi (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7) a lukewarm welcome.
On behalf of the EPP-ED group, Inigo Mendez de Vigo (Spain) congratulated President Prodi for the "forty dense pages of the White Paper". He said that all the MEPs agreed with the analysis, which was clear in the White Paper, but while insisting on the need to not challenge the balance of powers between the institutions, he added that the main problem was that they were Europeans without realising it and therefore awareness would have to be raised. For the Socialist group, Austrian Johannes Swoboda said he subscribed to some of President Prodi's ideas but regretted that they were not to be found in the White Paper. He regretted that the document had been published in the summer before it was presented to the EP (see EUROPE/Documents No. 2247/48 of 8 August 2001). One of the ideas which was not in the document, explained Mr Swoboda, was the importance attached by Mr Prodi in his speech to the European Parliament. He said that he was puzzled by the fact the White Paper repeated that action had to be focused on the priorities, without actually setting out what those priorities were. British Conservative Andrew Duff stressed the need to improve the actual implementation of EU policies, adding that his group was happy with the importance attached to decentralisation and the role of the regions in the White Paper, but regretted that the document made no mention of the role of the future Convention which falls under the Laeken process. For the Greens/European Free Alliance group, however, Belgium's Nelly Maes found the White Paper disappointing because it did not give enough importance to the role of the regions. Germany's Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (PDS), speaking for the GUE/NGL group, hammered home that everybody wanted the Europe of the Citizens to be more than mere words, but that in order to achieve this, it was important to be understandable - but the White Paper was jargon, in her words. Italy's Gianfranco Dell'Alba, speaking on behalf of the TDI group, reminded President Prodi that they both spoke the same language, Italian, and that the world "governance" does not exist in Italian. He said it didn't exist in other languages either, adding that the document was insufficient and calling for the legal principles of the rule of law to be respected. Arguing for greater transparency and openness, the Danish President of the EDD group, Jens-Peter Bonde said that the document presented them, once more, with many fine words but no commitments. He said that the problem was that Mr Prodi made promises but did not deliver. Finally, the non-aligned French MEP Georges Berthu called for a change in the balance of powers between the institutions with a greater role being given to national parliaments and governments which he described as an essential condition for democracy.
Responding to the MEPs' comments, President Prodi said that the discussion had been very useful. He recognised that the MEPs were right about the language and terminology, but said that he had seen hundreds of national laws and challenged the MEPs to find a single one which was understandable for the man in the street. He said he did not like the title of the White Paper but it was not easy to find a term that translates the same idea everywhere. Mr Prodi insisted on the importance of the role of the EP, feeling that the new Europe should be based on the essential role of the European Parliament. In terms of local powers, he stressed respect for the principle of subsidiarity and the institutional structure of Member States. Mr Prodi said that neither he nor the MEPs were happy with the comitology and it was time to change it, stressing that the Commission did not want any greater powers, but rather to organise itself in a more transparent and effective manner.