Brussels, 11/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The twelfth meting of Presidents of national parliaments of the thirteen countries candidates for EU membership (the ten Ceecs, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey) with the European Parliament was held in Brussels last week. The EP delegation, which was led by President Nicole Fontaine, comprised Guido Podesta, Elmar Brok, Giorgio Napolitano, Jo Leinen and Inigo Mendez de Vigo. The subjects broached were essentially the future of Europe and the next stages of the EU's constitutional development, as well as the general state of the enlargement process.
Regarding the future reforms of the Treaties, the parliamentarians spoke out in favour of "active participation " by candidate countries in the work of the Convention". "Unfortunately, it is not possible to have candidate countries take part on an equal footing with member countries, that is to say, with a right of vote", regretted Ms. Fontaine, "but the European Parliament would like their very active participation" in the exercise. ""Personally speaking", the President of the EP even considers that the candidate countries should have a right to a "permanent attendance" in the convention's Presidium. The goal of the next reform has to be not only to maintain but also to strengthen integration, the European Commission, the European Parliament and alter the way the Council of Ministers works, said the Presidents. The Council of Ministers must as far as possible take decisions through a majority, says a joint press release adopted at the end of the meeting. Participants also stressed the need to make a "clear distinction" between the powers of the EU and those of Member States, according to the principle of subsidiarity. In no case should the forthcoming reform lead to further conditions for membership for candidate countries, the participants also affirmed.
Regarding accession negotiations, the final press release states that the Presidents took note of the European Commission's opinion by which up to 10 candidate countries could complete negotiations by end-2002. They also took note of the debate that took place at the last General Affairs Council (including Mr. Vedrine's words over Bulgaria and Romania), but nevertheless placed emphasis on "the need to maintain the principle of differentiation" and on the objective and strictly individual treatment of candidates. In her address, Nicole Fontaine hoped that Bulgaria and Romania would catch up their delay, in accordance with the "catch-up" principle, "if delay there is". For her, the "political stakes" of Bulgaria and Romania's gap with other candidates, "must not be relegated to the second level, only to leave considerations of a short term economic interest for the Union". In that context, the European Commissioner for enlargement, Gunter Verheugen reiterated that the Commission's regular reports were "fully based on facts and objective analyses" and that there was "no political element" in the assessment and conclusions drawn by the Commission. Mr. Verheugn also took advantage of his speech to stress that, according to the Commission, the financial perspectives 2000-2006 would be enough to allow for enlargement of up to ten countries (with, however, a "phasing-in" scenario for certain funding, such as direct aid to farmers or certain regional aid), and that accession negotiations would have to be conducted and completed "independently of future reforms" being prepared (IGC, reform of the CAP).
The next meeting of the Presidents of national parliaments of candidate countries and the President of the EP will be held in Riga (Latvia) in May 2002.