Brussels, 20/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Elmar Brok, President of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs and Member of the Convention on the Future of Europe, told a handful of journalists on Wednesday that the Social Democrat "family" would be holding a big three-day seminar before the summer with Social Democrat representatives on the Convention, including Chairman Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (whose party belongs to the EPP), the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi (the CDU MEP stressed Mr Prodi was part of their political family), Commissioner Barnier, the Presidency of the Council and also a former German Chancellor (a clear reference to Helmut Kohl).
Mr Brok signalled that every Convention plenary would be preceded by meetings of the Members of the Convention according to their political colouring - meetings of governments, national parliaments (of both Member States and accession countries), the EP and the European Commission - in caucuses before the meetings of the various components. He said this was what the big political groups like the EPP-ED, the Socialists and the Liberals would be doing, pointing out that he himself was the EPP coordinator and Giuliano Amato the PES coordinator. He felt these transversal links outside the institutions would provide European value added and be a consensus-building mechanism.
At the same time, Mr Brok said it was important not to underestimate the potential for parliamentary solidarity between MPs and MEPs in the face of attempts by "Chancelleries" to impose their views. In the debate on the rules of procedure for the Convention (the Praesidium prefers to call it "working methods", see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4), it was MPs who led the rebellion against the first initial draft document, explained Mr Brok (but also Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff, Ed, see below). The hue and cry over the regulations suggested to the Mr Brok the topic of a future PhD law thesis - how to turn a Presidential regulation into a parliamentary regulation. Mr Brok also mentioned:
The Convention duration. He suggested that the Convention continue to exist during the duration of the IGC, saying that one option would be for the Convention Chairman and Vice-Chairs to attend the Intergovernmental Conference and to report back to the plenary afterwards. He again said that the IGC should be concluded ahead of schedule, adding that the Laeken Conclusions didn't mention 2004, although the people who wanted it to state 2003 didn't succeed in getting the date added.
Reforming the Council. Various improvements suggested in the Blair-Schröder letter could be incorporated without modifying the Treaty, as could those put forward in the report by Jacques Roos MEP, explained Mr Brok.
The German government's criticisms of the European Commission. Mr Brok hoped the Schröder government would understand that its behaviour was leading to its "isolation" and would not give it any more votes because adults are grown-up enough to know that isolation is the worst possible scenario.
For the Praesidium meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the British Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff, while noting that the most recent Praesidium Rules of Procedure document "represents a significant improvement on previous drafts", set out in a letter to Inigo Mendez de Vigo and Klaus Hänsch (EP representatives on the Praesidium) some suggestions for improving the document. The amendments concern the role of alternates who "must be able to play a fuller part than allowed for so far. Only with the participation of alternates will the full plurality of the Convention be reflected"; "Speakers from the candidate states may speak in their own language with simultaneous interpretation into at least one of the official languages"; the translation of written contributions from full and alternate members ("Members of the Convention have not been appointed because of their linguistic skill…if written contributions are not to be translated, members will be forced to speak at much greater length"); and working groups, where Mr Duff says it is "outrageous for the Praesidium to choose which members of the Convention serve on working groups" and therefore calls for the words to the effect that the Praesidium should determine the composition of the working groups taking account of the expertise of the members, alternatives and observers to be deleted.