Heads of State are still making the most of academic ceremonies to express their views on the future of Europe. This month, José Maria Aznar and Göran Persson have joined the long list ranging from Lionel Jospin to Guy Verhofstadt.

Behind the slogan. The Spanish Prime Minister unveiled his vision of the future of Europe on 9 October at a ceremony where his colleague Jean-Claude Juncker awarded the European Golden Medal of Merit to European Commissioner Viviane Reding (see our newsletter of 12 October, p.6). His vision is particularly important because on 1 January, Spain will be taking over the Presidency of the Council along with (inter alia) the very heavy responsibility of launching the Convention that will prepare for the upcoming revision of the Treaty. Mr Aznar stressed the double-strand of lessons that the EU has to draw from the tragic events of 11 September: speeding up the implementation of the common area of freedom, security and justice; and immediately including the war against terrorism in the basic objectives of the Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP), changing the current strategy. Mr Aznar set these priorities against the backdrop of Spain's slogan for its Presidency - "More Europe" - which incorporates three fundamental elements: enlargement, making a success of the euro and the debate on the EU institutions, to which the President has added two summits that will take place in the next six months - the Summit with Latin America and the Caribbean (in Madrid) and the Valencia meeting with Mediterranean countries.

For our short chronicle, the element devoted to institutional reform obviously takes precedence. Reading between the lines of the 9 October speech, I understand the following:

a)  Mr Aznar has not dropped his reservations about the idea of an avant-garde in the EU. He said that consensus was the essential element that has to inspire the current debate on the future of Europe and was happy to see the large number of new ideas about improving the functioning of the Union while respecting what has already been achieved. He believed, however, that we should challenge formulas based on artificial archetypes that run the risk of destroying the Europe that we have built together.

b)  According to Mr Aznar, there is plenty to be constructed: enlargement, the Lisbon strategy, CESDP, the area of freedom and security, etc. It would all have to be "systemised" bearing in mind that the current budget was "clearly inadequate" for the future because it does not alter resources in line with the EU's competencies. Mr Aznar added that if one wanted to stimulate the EU's work and make it effective, one had to be aware that it was impossible to avoid a debate in the medium-term on the Union's resources and the weight of the Community budget.

c)  The Spanish Prime Minster said that exercising power sharing should not include the regions and other territorial units but be limited to considering better sharing of power between the Union and its Member States. He added that it one tried to enlarge the debate to other public spheres, the European Union would be at risk. He did not believe there was a democratic deficit in the Union and felt that it would be enough to consider a binding charter on how national parliaments can intervene in affairs involving the EU, implying that national parliaments would give their opinion every time it was decided to grant the EU more competencies so as to avoid drawing up an inflexible list of EU competencies that would stop the Union developing.

A bridge with America. Mr Aznar said he believed in very close transatlantic ties, saying that Spain had no choice but to be American. Since the discovery of the Americas, he added, Spain has always been a bridge between the Americas and Europe and it was impossible to understand Spain's history and identity as a nation without bearing this in mind.

The Spanish Prime Minister's frank words have to be welcomed (even if he expresses different views from other Member States). They are much better than soft consensus and should be seen as an example since they allow the genuine debate that Europe needs.

Mr Persson's confirmation. Addressing Berlin's Humboldt University on 18 October, the Swedish Prime Minster Göran Persson expressed his views on the future of Europe (see newsletter of 20 October, p.6), giving a broadly positive image of Sweden's attitude, particularly in terms of strengthening the Council, qualified majority voting, "strengthened cooperation" and even Sweden joining the euro (his party is in favour, as are most Swedish MPs). But at the same time, he defended intergovernmental co-operation in areas like Justice and Home Affairs and did not seem very enthusiastic about increasing the Commission's powers. (F.R.)