Brussels, 21/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - During the colloquy organised by the association "European Present Realities" on the prospects of the EU after the Laeken Summit, MEPs Jo Leinen and Pierre Jockheer spoke along partially different lines. Mr Leinen considers that, after the disappointment of Nice, Laeken was a return to hope. The Convention is authorised to discuss all the aspects of the future of Europe, the word "Constitution" appearing in the Laeken declaration. The "Europe of governments" is now a thing of the past and there is no going back. The "Charter of Fundamental Rights" will allow citizens to relate to the work being done by the Convention and the three-pillar Treaty structure could be overtaken. Now that the euro has come successfully into being, the time is right for carrying out the reforms that the EU needs, including above all: the creation of a "Mr Euro" (who must be a European Commissioner), the generalisation of decision-making by majority, the end of the rotating Council Presidency, and the decision to elect the president of the Commission (by the European Parliament or directly by EU citizens).
On the whole, Mr Jonckheer shared the aims put forward by his colleague but called for caution as nothing has yet been achieved. He emphasised two points which to his mind are unsatisfactory in the Laeken declaration (the Convention was not authorised to designate its own Chairman, and the number of MEPs is insufficient in the composition of the Convention). He felt it indispensable for the European Parliament to be involved, in due course, in the work carried out after the Convention (nothing has been foreseen in this connection). Regarding the outcome of the work by the Convention, Mr Jonckheer fears that the different opinions over the future of Europe, which are so obvious among the fifteen governments, will reappear between the representatives of the national parliaments. This will thus make problematical the definition of consensual or largely majority guidelines likely to then influence the work of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), which is to take the final decisions. Mr Jonckheer considers, moreover, that the political developments in some Member States (Austria, Denmark and Italy) are not along the lines desired.
The work of the colloquy was chaired by Mr Hartmut Marhold, Chairman of the "European Present Realities" association, and the chairman of honour, Mr Jean-Pieere Gouzy, presented an overview of the "new global environment" that will inevitably influence the way the EU evolves.