Brussels, 13/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Laeken European Council chaired by Guy Verhofstadt managed to take foreign policy initiatives in its first working meeting, that were later praised by the President of the Council, Louis Michel, speaking to journalists. One of these initiatives, sending a multinational force (headed by a British national) to which all Member States would contribute, is a significant step for cohesion in the EU over and above the value of the initiative itself after the malaise following the Ghent three-way and then London seven-way summits on Afghanistan. The heads of state had saved the most difficult issues for the end of the day - selecting the President of the Convention preparing for the next IGC, the headquarters of nine agencies or Union bodies (see below). EUROPE will report on the results of these debates and the Summit conclusions in its special edition on Sunday 16 December.
The first subject discussed by the European Council (after the traditional meeting with the President of the European Parliament - see separate article on President Nicole Fontaine's intervention) was the European Union's action after the 11 September attacks, with Louis Michel explaining that all participants had made "considerable progress" in implementing the action plan adopted by the extraordinary European Council of 21 September outlined in the President's report. This progress was possible thanks to the "political will of all parties" commented Mr Michel, mentioning the particularly decisive agreement on the European arrest warrant (but this issue was only discussed by heads of state in the afternoon - see below); the common definition of terrorism; the list of terrorist organisations and freezing terrorists' assets. Mr Michel welcomed Europe's "visibility" in the common fight against terrorism.
With obvious pleasure, Louis Michel also announced a strong and large-scale European initiative - for the first time in a crisis of this scale, the European Union would be setting up a "multinational force" that all countries would take part in. This is vital for the development of CFSP, argued the President of the Council of the EU, also highlighting the visibility of a united and indivisible Europe (veiled reference to the controversy of holding separate summits on Afghanistan). Responding to questions, Mr Michel explained that it could be a force of 3000 to 4000 men and this was a turning point for the EU. He said the soldiers would not be there to fight a war, but to help re-establish normal life in Afghanistan. At the same press conference, the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, said that the force would be headed by a European, probably a British national, and would be set up once a UN resolution was adopted on 22 December. Non-European countries could also get involved, of course, explained Mr Solana, adding that the staff headquarters would be British.
The Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lindh, told journalists that she had the impression that the British didn't want too many other countries to be involved at the start, in order to make it easier to set up and that Sweden would probably contribute to intelligence.
The President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, said in the meeting that Afghanistan's financial requirements were estimated at around EUR 8 billion over five years and that the Tokyo Donor Conference would ask the EU for around EUR 500 million a year. Commissioner Nielson is returning from Kabul, he noted, and the Commission had taken measures for co-ordinating humanitarian aid with the arrival of winter.
Another important decision taken at the Summit: to send the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, to Washington "very soon" to try to reach, in Louis Michel's words, a common analysis that could lead to a common initiative between the EU and the United States to relaunch the Middle-East Peace Process. The situation on the ground has never been so tragic, Mr Michel admitted, adding that the European Council in Laeken wanted to take "strong position" by stressing the need for extremely tight coordination between the EU, the UN, the United States and Russia and sending a message to Israel about its behaviour and to the Palestinians about what was expected of them.
The Laeken conclusions incorporate the conclusions of the General Affairs Council last Monday, with one additional element: namely the EU's confirmation that Arafat, democratically elected, and the Palestinian Authority, are, in this conflict, the only counterparts for Israel, which needs a partner, asserted Mr Michel, while noting that a weakening of Yasser Arafat would not contribute towards progress in the peace process.
As for Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), Louis Michel announced that in Laeken there would be an operational declaration, even if the Greek problem over the association of Turkey in ESDP operation has not yet been resolved. The operational declaration means that the decision-making mechanism is in place, as well as the capabilities, the civil aspects, the "intelligence" aspects, indicated Mr Solana, who wanted to add that this issue and that of the EU/NATO agreement over guaranteed EU access to Alliance assets for its future ESDP operations (blocked for months by Turkey, and recently by Greece) are "two separate things", even if it would be obviously preferable to adopt them at the same time (the Netherlands in particular have underlined during the talk that a operational declaration without EU/NATO agreement would hardly be ambitious). Our talks yesterday evening with the Greeks unfolded in a very relaxed atmosphere, I respect the difficulties of our Greek friends and we are trying to meet their concerns, but maybe it is necessary to give time to time, stated Mr Michel. Also, Mr Solana added that, with Greece, there are issues of presentation, simple to resolve, and a few small issues of substance, more difficult.
The Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis indicated for his part that Greece is in favour of the text declaring the operational status of the European intervention force, but is not in agreement with the text presented following Turkish talks with the British and Americans in order to resolve the Turkish problem. The problem is that this does not concern a solution according to the institutional rules of the EU, but negotiations between a Member State and third country, he noted. Greece cannot accept a text that is not totally clear and contains too many options: we think that defence would function better is everything is clear and there are no differences of interpretation between the EU member countries and those of NATO, said Mr Simitis, who on Thursday evening held five hours of talks with Guy Verhofstadt and Javier Solana over this issue. Belgium promised to present a text of Saturday at the latest, indicated Mr Simitis, adding that if there is no agreement it will be necessary to give a mandate to the Spanish president to continue the talks.
The Council will not have a large debate on the Balkans. Commission sources consider that this is rather a "good sign", as it shows a certain stability. Regarding Macedonia, the Commission again repeats that the Donor Conference will be organised "as soon as the law on local government has been ratified", which could be the case within two weeks. "The Macedonians would do better to hurry and do so before Christmas, for the Conference to be able to be organised in January", a spokesperson stressed.
The European Union also wanted, in Laeken, to announce that it would adopt a development and co-operation strategy on the way in which to overcome the North-South divide, for the attention of the Monterrey and Johannesburg conferences next year; while signalling this to the press, Mr Michel also indicated that the Summit had underlined its concern for the situation in Africa, which cannot come after other subjects, if only for the human stakes it represents. On this subject, the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi announced that the indicative programme for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the framework of the Lomé Convention, will be signed in January 2002.
Laeken Declaration: New version presented at last minute
During the press conference, Louis Michel, when answering questions, felt that the last version of the Laeken declaration (only presented on Friday afternoon to the other delegations, which cause some bad feeling) was a good declaration, full of power, which adds to the soul (…). This is some of Verhofstadt's best, I hope that it will not be watered down too much.
As we went to press, a solution seemed to be presenting itself over the Presidency of the Convention, which will prepare the next IGC. The Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok seemed more inclined to accept such a job, which he refused until now due to his political commitments in the Netherlands (where elections will take place next year).
Serious horsetrading over headquarters
The negotiations over the headquarters of the future European agencies were continuing on Friday behind the scenes, being discussed in the same package as the President of the Convention on the Future of Europe, who would form part of the Praesidium and the location of agencies the creation of which has not even been formally approved yet. Between the bartering of the Maritime Agency in Athens for Greece's agreement to the agreement drawn up with Turkey on EU/Nato relations, and the Presidency of the Convention going to France in return for compensating for the lack of an agency, the wildest rumours were circulating while awaiting the final decision by the heads of state.
In order to leave leeway for compromises, the heads of state will be deciding on the headquarters of nine agencies: 1) Eurojust, with the candidacy of The Hague in the Netherlands (odds on favourite), Brussels in Belgium and Luxembourg; 2) The European Police College which attracted the candidacy of Bramshill near London (UK), Rome (IT), Madrid (ES), Vienna (AT) and Lyons (FR); 3) the European Food Authority for which Italy proposed Parma and Finland proposed Helsinki, backing it up with a huge publicity campaign against Lille in France and Barcelona (Spain) which led more restrained campaigns. The Finnish delegation was optimistic, counting on the support of Germany, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg and the sympathy of the United Kingdom and Portugal; 4) The Air Safety Agency for which Schipol (NL) was the favourite, followed by Cologne in Germany; 5) the European Maritime Safety Agency which won Nantes' candidacy (France), Lisbon (Portugal), Genoa (Italy), Pyraes (Greece) and Southampton in the UK (whose candidacy was announced quite recently); 6) the Monitoring Centre for Migration and Asylum; 7) the European Rail Safety Agency (the creation of which has not yet been formally decided); 8) the Community Visa Management Agency; and 9) the European Civil Protection Agency.
To the formal list, one should also add the headquarters of the European Satellite Centre in Torejon (Spain) and the IT Security Agency and the EU's Security Institute, currently in Paris.
Enlargement - Will the Laeken Conclusions mention the number of candidate
countries capable of completing negotiations in 2002?
The enlargement of the EU was only scheduled for debate at the end of the afternoon, but the Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel signalled at a press conference at midday that the Laeken Conclusions would highlight the EU's determination and political will to continue the enlargement process on the basis of the basic rules and principles set out at the start of the negotiating process: differentiation between candidate countries, judging each candidate country on its own merits and the option for countries lagging behind to catch up the most advanced if they make sufficient progress. A draft version of the Summit Conclusions that was doing the rounds on Friday afternoon noted "considerable progress" in the accession negotiations and that several candidate countries had "caught up", but it also pointed out that the conclusions drawn by the European Commission in its recent strategic document on enlargement, namely that if the current rate kept up, up to ten candidate countries (all except Bulgaria and Romania) could complete their negotiations by the end of next year. Diplomats from several Member States believed it "highly unlikely" that the EU heads of state would be able to give more details that the conclusions approved on Monday by the General Affairs Council, which made no mention of how many candidate countries are capable of ending negotiations at the end of 2002.
In terms of the status candidate countries are to be given in the Convention on the future of Europe, Louis Michel said that they would be on an "almost equal, if not equal" footing, with the only difference from Member States being that they would not have voting rights. Mr Michel felt it was perfectly normal for countries, which have not yet joined the EU to not have exactly the same rights as Member States.
After enlargement - Belgian Presidency tries to get timetable for adopting
common asylum and immigration rules
In the conclusions on the assessment of progress made in justice and home affairs, the EU is expected to welcome the measures taken in the fight against terrorism (definition of terrorism and European arrest warrant) and in judicial co-operation (Eurojust). They are also expected to acknowledge lagging behind in meeting the targets set in October 1999 in Tampere, particularly in terms of asylum and immigration. Nothing spectacular was expected in the conclusions, for which it was recognised, from Presidency sources, that this rather concerned a forced exercise (the EU 15 undertook in Tampere to carry out the assessment in December 2000), by admitting that the Presidency would not risk the Laeken Summit to open a major debate over these sensitive issues. Nevertheless, diplomatic sources indicated that several countries including Germany proved to be critical with regards to the European Commission proposals in terms of asylum and immigration (notably by calling for pushing back the issues of grouping and asylum procedures), they would have accepted raising the idea of moving from the unanimity rule to that of qualified majority for issues of asylum and immigration.
By opening the debate on the follow-up to Tampere, Mr Verhofstadt first underlined that the conclusions should reflect the progress of the fight against terrorism, before recognising that there had not been any spectacular progress in terms of asylum and immigration. Thus, he called on his counterparts to provide impetus in this area, and notably set dates for the adoption of important projects: June 2002 for the Directive relating to standards for receiving and the Dublin II regulation, December 2002 for the Directive relating to asylum Procedures and family groupings, June 2003 for the definition of the term "refugee" and the forms of subsidiary protection. Romano Prodi called for progress in three areas: adoption of common rules for asylum and immigration, mutual recognition in terms of penal legislation and the management of the EU's external borders. At the end of discussions, Guy Verhofstadt announced that the Fifteen and the Commission had agreed on the fact that to break the deadlock on the issue of asylum and immigration, there needed to be new proposals: the Commission is to present a new draft directive within three months for asylum procedures. Romano Prodi spoke of 3 to 4 months. "For now we are deadlocked,, a new process needs triggering" declared the Belgian Prime Minister.
Arrest warrant: Mr Berlusconi thanks Mr Ruggiero
In Laeken, the spokesperson for Silvio Berlusconi distributed to the press a declaration in which the Italian Prime Minister thanks the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Renato Ruggiero, for his vital contribution towards a solution to the problem of the European arrest warrant. From the beginning, asserts Mr Berlusconi, Mr Ruggiero outlined to me his great concerns and the serious international consequences of an unjustifiable negative position on our behalf over this important initiative… The press release adds that Mr Berlusconi thus categorically denied an interview by the Minister for European Affairs, Rocco Buttiglione, who asserted that if the problems had been examined in time, we would have been able to resolve them more easily, and that the responsibility fell unto not only the Minister for Justice, but also on Ruggiero. In Laeken, Mr Berlusconi will insist for us to move forward towards a European habeas corpus, added Mr Buttiglione.