Brussels, 20/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - Elmar Brok, chair of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and one of the EPP-ED Group's representatives in the Convention on the future of Europe, expressed concern on Tuesday over the attribution of too much power to the Convention's Presidium. "Too powerful a Presidium would be against the interests of parliamentarians and contrary to the new method aimed at providing the debate on the future of European integration with a parliamentary-type structure. That's why the idea of granting the Presidium too powerful a role needs rejecting", Mr. Brok told a few journalists. For Mr. Brok, it is a question of legitimacy: "The Convention's decisions need carrying by a majority of parliamentarians sitting in the Convention". Mr. Brok especially fears that too powerful a Presidium should tend to making of the Convention "one of acclaim rather than a working Convention". The question of its powers, working methods and decision-taking will have to be clarified from the outset, which will be no easy thing and could even delay the Convention's actual work until end-March, Mr. Brok believes.
The CDU member also warned against the "illusion" of being able to achieve a European Constitution "setting out from zero, from a blank sheet", without taking as point of departure the existing Treaties, the acquis communautaire and the "basic consensus that has developed over the last decades" regarding European integration. "The experience of history demonstrates that it has never been possible to agree on the terms of a brand new Convention without building upon what existed before", except after revolutions or wars, as was the case, for example, with the German Constitution of 1949 at the end of the Second World War, he recalled. According to him, the new review of the Treaties by the IGC that is to follow the Convention, will have to be over before the first accessions of new EU members, ie.., by end-2003. "It's an affair of the Fifteen. It's their task to render the Union definitively ready for enlargement", said Brok. The 2003 IGC will "doubtless be the last opportunity" for a long time to succeed in deepening European integration. The "pressure of enlargement" (and the increased risk of deadlock in any later attempt to reform the Union enlarged to 25 or more members) may prove useful and positive, the MEP considered. Mr. Brok thus pleaded in favour of "as short a period as possible" between the end of the work of the Convention and the beginning of the IGC as such, so that the results of the Convention are not forgotten even before the IGC begins. He is, however, confident: Heads of State and Government will not be able to neglect the work of the Convention, as the Convention "will formally continue to exist" (even after having handed in the results of its work) and will demand to be continually informed on progress in the work of the IGC. "Member States will then have to explain to the public why they are straying from this or that Convention proposal", Mr. Brok stressed. The MEP also considered that the German representation within the Convention was a little "weak" in relation to other countries. He, notably, regretted that the Government of Chancellor Schroeder had not backed the sending to the Convention of Schauble (former leader of the CDU), who, he said, would have had a "guaranteed seat" on the Presidium (the EPP had agreed to reserve him that place, said Mr. Brok).