Some important meetings. The presentation of the Spanish Presidency's programme is now complete, following the debate at the beginning of the week at the General Affairs Council. Spain had already had plenty of opportunities to explain its aims and intentions and discuss them with the Commission and the European Parliament, and was able to become acquainted with the views of the other Member States. We have reported on this in depth on each occasion. The "Priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the EU" document is vital for understanding the details and is one of the fullest and most detailed six-monthly programmes I have ever come across. In his speech to the European Parliament, Mr Aznar outlined six ambitions: fighting terrorism (including the gradual setting up of the European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice), making a success of the euro; stimulating the Lisbon process to create a more prosperous, dynamic Europe in the interest of citizens; moving towards enlargement; for Europe to have an active and effective presence in the world; and the first part of the debate on the future of Europe.
These priorities will be combined with a number of meetings and exchanges - end of February for the launch of the Convention; the Barcelona Summit on 15/16 March to relaunch the Lisbon process of privatisation and reform; the EuroMed Conference on 22/23 April in Valencia to relaunch the Barcelona process (I am still sceptical about this since the objectives need to be radically changed and will be writing about this soon); the summits with Latin America, the Caribbean and Mercosur in Madrid on 17/18 May (I am rather sceptical about the current objectives for these summits too); the Council on 17/18 June to take the final decision on Galileo; and the Summit of 21/22 June to decide on remaining issues and questions of principle.
Raw nerves. The documents exist and I will certainly not attempt to summarise them yet again, but some comments might not be out of place. Listing their priorities, the Spanish authorities laid particular stress on two areas of their programme (fighting terrorism and implementing the common energy market) and a question on the sidelines (how relations between national authorities and Community institutions are organised). I have the feeling that these three areas are particularly sensitive to the Spanish, so much so that they generate passion. Why?
Terrorism at home. For terrorism, the reason is obvious - Spain is directly affected by it and has the impression that in the past, its partners did not always provide the solidarity and support it would have desired, so it is logical for Mr Aznar to take advantage of the fact that Europe and the rest of the world have become aware of the need to use all means to combat terrorism to ensure that Basque terrorism is considered in the same light as the other forms of terrorism that afflict the world. I agree with the Spanish government that the Basque terrorist murders are cowardly and base and it would be justified to unite all European forces to eliminate such activities from society. Last week, the President of the Basque country, Juan José Ibarretxe, met the President of the Commission in Brussels where he roundly condemned ETA's terrorism, expressing his country's desire to fully participate in the European legal and police area, noting that the Basque government and people wanted democracy and liberty, and the people were only interested in one thing - an end to violence. In democratic regimes in Europe, terrorists are the worst enemies of the people on whose behalf they claim to act. If the EU's initiatives can effectively up the ante in the fight against all forms of terrorism and strengthen the solidarity of other Member States with Spain in this connection, they will be welcome. It is not acceptable to differentiate between different forms of terrorism - they all merit the same hate and disgust.
Regions that make demands. The demands of Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country and other regions of Spain for greater autonomy and direct representation at the EU institutions clearly have no connection with terrorist methods. They are legitimate as long as they are formulated using democratic methods and procedures; but it is out of the question for European institutions (part from the Committee of the Regions, which is not yet an institution) to get involved. Since subsidiarity is coming into play and Europe is being called upon to intervene as little as possible in Member States' internal affairs, it would be contradictory to ask it to take a line on how Spain organises its representation in Brussels. Europe does its duty with regard to cities and regions, both in institutional terms (through the creation of the Committee of the Regions and programmes to strengthen its role) and in terms of legislation (regional and local autonomy and minority rights are better respected in Europe now than they were in the past in many Member States). In the meeting I've already mentioned with Mr Prodi, the Basque President called for the Spanish Presidency to have a similar system to the Belgian Presidency's set up for Flanders and Wallonia (which were allowed to chair Council meetings that discussed regional powers), and argued that on the basis of the Basque Country's tax autonomy, it should also be involved in the ECOFIN Council. Mr Prodi responded logically that it was not down to the EU institutions to decide on how Spain should organise its presence in Brussels.
Each country decides for itself how it is organised. People interested in these issues should now focus on the Convention since it is up to the Convention to include this issue in its discussions (if it so desires). I do not know enough about the history or feelings of the populations concerned to be able to make more than the following comment - I didn't realise the regional problem was so acute in Spain. At first sight, there may be more centrifugal pressures there than in other Member States since language is involved and we know how sensitive citizens are about language questions. The debate at the European Parliament on the Spanish Presidency's programme for the Council was very illuminating in this connection and pretty impressive. A Spanish MEP from Catalonia decided to speak in French and a Basque Country MEP in English rather than Spanish. The "regionalists" accused Mr Aznar of opposing diversity (see summary in our bulletin on 17 January, pp 8/9). Mr Aznar firmly outlined his views in the press conference on the Spanish Presidency's programme in Madrid a week beforehand - the EU is a Union of states… there are federal states, centralised states, autonomous regions… The President of the Commission, sitting beside him, said that every Member State decides for itself how it is organised internally in line with its history and traditions (see our bulletin of 9 January, pp 7/8). Mr Prodi's conclusion seems logical and permanent to me (as long as the basic principles of the Treaties are respected), independent of the Convention's outcome and conclusions.
A question of networks. Moving on to the third topic of passion for Spain, in my view - the setting up of the European energy market. In the framework of the full Lisbon strategy and with the Commission's agreement, the new Presidency wants to speed up the liberalisation process and also structural reforms in several areas - transport, the financial services market, employment, education and training. But it laid particular emphasis on energy. A Spanish source gave me the following explanation - the most sensitive area is the issue of connecting up energy networks between Spain and the rest of the EU, particularly extending oil and gas pipelines to Spain - these pipelines are in full expansion and transport natural gas and oil down from Siberia and the Caucasus to the EU. This is as much a political and psychological question as a matter of economics for the Spanish. Spain sometimes gets the impression that its links with the rest of Europe are not fully recognised or accepted, as if the Pyrenees were still some kind of a psychological barrier hanging over from the period when Spain decided itself to deliberately have a rail gauge incompatible with France for security reasons. Nowadays, however, Spain wants to be a full member of all European networks for economic motives and security of supply, of course, but also for political and psychological reasons. National interests coincide here with European interests since Spain's six-monthly programme also covers the rapid creation of a Community energy market, a vital part of the Lisbon strategy which the European Commission is focussing on (even though I personally would have preferred the Commission not to start off by threatening to take autonomous decisions through directives under an article of the Treaty that should be used as little as possible (if ever) since it is an anomaly in the European institutional system despite the Court of Justice recognising its validity).
We need to analyse how the dogged determination of some regions of Spain will mesh with the general aspiration to form as integral a part of Europe as possible. I will need an insight from Spanish sources in this connection. (F.R.)