Brussels, 05/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The President (Liberal) of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, who spoke on Friday at the meeting of the Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party chaired by Werner Hoyer, again stressed the "enormous" potential of the Convention on the Future of Europe. He felt that, if the Convention manages to reach a "coherent" consensus, this "should leave a lesser range of issues" for the IGC to resolve.
The work within the different political families represented at the Convention will be very important for "building bridges in due time" in order to reach a coherent and consensual result, Henning Christophersen, representing the Danish Prime Minister at the Praesidium, recognised for his part. In his view, the Convention should manage to adopt either "a broadly based set up of recommendations, perhaps even a draft treaty with limited set up of options, which the IGC could accept as a final platform). Otherwise, he warned, the Convention method (which he called a "multidimensional institution", whereas the Intergovernmental Conferences are "one dimensional") will be "relegated to the dustbin" of European history. Mr Christophersen, who has gained considerable experience as a European Commissioner, also remarked that one of the conditions for success of the Convention (and of the IGC) would be "the substance of its agenda". It is necessary to have an agenda with sufficiently broad content so that everyone may, after the negotiation, "walk away" and present the result as something good for Europe, but also as something that has "reasonable gains" for his/her country, he said. He cited the example of the IGCs which resulted in the Single Act and in the EMU, which (unlike those leading to the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties) were based on a very broad agenda and fully fledged proposals by the European Commission, and which resulted in "trade offs" that met with everyone's satisfaction (Ms Thatcher, for example, accepted more qualified majority and powers for the European Parliament but "walked away" with the single market).
Convention Member Andrew Duff insisted on building a "caucus" (preferring to use this informal US term) between Liberals at the Convention. He said he did not consider himself as "just representing himself but also the Liberal Group at the EP and, as far as possible, the European Liberal Party". Mr Duff pointed out the "formidable, presidential style" of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and hoped that procedural problems were now behind them. As to substance, he felt that the Convention would be a success if it finds an answer to "what I call the federal question" (what powers the Union should have, exercised by what institutions), and confirmed that he is in favour of the model of a "federal Union for States and citizens" compared to the other models (United States of Europe, Union of States, Federation of Nation States, Confederation).