Brussels, 26/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - As we mentioned (see Europe of 15 September, p.6), the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs has adopted a report tabled by Luxembourg Socialist Jacques Poos on the reform of the EU Council, report that suggests a series of reforms that do not require a review of the Treaty, and that should allow for the work of the General Affairs Council (GAC) to be enhanced. Poos denounces the "effacement" effect of the General Affairs Council which, "eroded on the sides by the specialised Council (..), has also been dispossessed of part of its powers downwards (Committee of Permanent Representatives) and upwards (European Council". According to the former Luxembourg Foreign Minister, his colleagues in the General Affairs Council (and ministers of European affairs who accompany or replace them) "are not void of responsibility", as "they did not manage to reform their institution when it was still time" and defend their place in the Union's institutional framework, whereas the "Heads of Government did not hesitate in increasing the hold of the European Council on European institutions".
Also noting that the EcoFin Council and the Eurogroup "have provided themselves with a way of autonomously preparing things, intergovernmental in essence" (to which "we shall have to pay attention when implementing enhanced cooperation"), Mr. Poos states that, with the "Sherpas" of the Heads of State and Prime ministers has been formed a way of parallel preparations and command, opaque and intergovernmental in essence". He then goes on: "The Commission has again found itself left on the sideline of this mechanism and lost whole swathes of its powers of proposal. On his/her round of the capitals preceding summits, the President of the European Council is not accompanied by the President of the Commission. The fact that the latter is left out of the "confessionals" is not therefore an innovation of the European Council of Nice. The eviction of the Commission is part of the system". The reform must, therefore, "begin at the summit", by the European Council which, "taking all important decisions, often becomes an element of deadlock in the decision-making process", says Mr. Poos. "Nothing moves before a problem to be decided upon ends before the European Council", the rapporteur complains, for whom the Summit "assumes its role perfectly" when it identifies the guidelines for European employment and growth policy, sets the financial perspectives or launches initiatives for the review of the treaties, but "less so when it exercises powers of coordination or takes detailed decisions that ought to be settled at the level of the General Affairs Council".
Poos suggests reforms that can be undertaken without amending the Treaty, including:
- better co-ordination at national governments level. According to him, the Council of ministers of Member States should have on their agenda a set topic "European Affairs", and each government should decide on a permanent procedure involving their national parliaments in preparing European decisions (a special procedure could be provided for for associating regions in "federal or heavily regionalised" countries).
- enhancing the role of the General Affairs Council, which should meet on a weekly basis, in principle each Monday and Tuesday, and within which governments would "delegate (…), depending on their choice, their deputy prime minister, their foreign minister or their minister for European affairs". According to Poos, this would be preferable to a permanent presence in Brussels of ministers of European affairs, as it would thus avoid "the concentration in Brussels of a bureaucratic aristocracy, detached from national realities and with a tendency to escape their control" (the GAC "must remain a political body and not become a "super-Coreper"", Poos decrees).
- a limit to the number of Council formations, from twenty or so to ten or so, for example, the GAC could deal with issues relating to development and external trade, the EcoFin deal with industrial affairs and the budget.
- improvement of the material functioning of the Council, notably by reducing the "number of members "at the table" to two per delegation, "a very limited number of chairs in the second row being reserved to the collaborators and experts". Presently, 85 people "sit at the central table, whereas behind each delegation (..) are some half a dozen chairs on which we note a continual coming-and-going of national and Community officials", Mr. Poos notes, in favour of more frequent use of ultra-small meetings. In addition, he proposes introducing a "quorum of ministerial presence to two-thirds" (and suspend meetings not reaching this) and allocating to each participant (which is not currently the case) an "equal" time to speak, as the European Parliament does.