Brussels, 12/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Secretariat of the European Convention has confirmed in a memorandum that the proposal by Convention Member Gundar Krasts is "technically possible". His proposal stipulates that candidate country Members should be able to address the Convention in their own language, with interpretation being provided to an EU language by an interpreter accompanying the speaker and then from that language to the other 10 EU languages by the usual team of interpreters (see EUROPE of 10 April, p.8).
The Convention has received contributions from various Members (see EUROPE of 27 March, p.5 for the contribution of Hubert Haenel from the French Senate):
The Minister-President of Baden Württemburg, Erwin Teufel, raised the question of organising the EU's powers, dividing them into exclusive, fundamental and subsidiary powers. He says that domains should be determined for which only Member States have powers, restricting the EU's powers (such as relations with religions, public safety, education, encouraging culture, media organisation, social security and town and country planning) and affirming principles like mutual Community loyalty and respecting the national identify of Member States and their internal structure. The German parliament representative calls for the abolition of the three-pillar Treaty structure and raises the issue of returning EU powers to the Member States. He calls for the election of the President of the European Commission either by the European Parliament or as part of the European elections, and for the setting up of a joint political committee of MPs and MEPs to monitor the respect of subsidiarity.
Andrew Duff MEP has written a few articles on a Constitution for a Federal Union of states and peoples (that he feels should have no more than 20 articles in total). Mr Duff proposes a preamble, an Article 1 on objectives (with a new objective of "defining the Union"); Article 4 on governance (the EU's actions should not go beyond what is necessary to achieve its objectives and the Member States should abstain from measures that jeopardise attainment of the EU's objectives); and Article 5 on EU competencies relating "to trade and the customs union, the single market, monetary policy, environmental matters of concern to more than one state and common foreign, security and defence policies. The Union shall have its own budget and financial resources".
In a more general document, Majtaz Nahtigal, representing the Slovenian prime minister, says that "Nation states are a basis of identify of each European nation, a basic element of Europe architecture and common Europe identity". He highlights the lack of equality between big and small Member States; the strengthening of the Community Method; and a "strong, neutral and impartial Commission". "It would not be possible to make the final list of competencies", he writes, but "consultations with the national parliaments would be compulsory". The Director of the Slovenian Directive Office for Legislation says "The possibility of enhanced co-operation is therefore inevitable" while taking certain principles into account.
In a more "philosophical" document, Danuta Hübner, representing the Polish prime minister and European integration secretary of state discusses the democratic deficit in the EU, noting that the Council, Commission and Parliament were set up "in a way - in violation of the Montesquieu's principle of the triple division of power", and the lack of transparency about their activities (recognising that "all democratic institutions in national states also face similar problems"). In terms of the message the Convention should send citizens, "such a message should mainly concern two issues: quality of life and public security" ("the most "selfish" aspects of the social life, she notes in passing). Ms Hübner raises the problem of the EU's relations with South-East European countries and countries like Russia and Ukraine, noting "there is a need to design an alternative form of European affiliation of these countries so that a positive energy can be released in them". She says such a formula could involve "deepened political dialogue in the form of a Confederation Council… with regular consultations in the area of economy, home affairs, energy, supported by summit meetings"; "the "EU's involvement in development of the energy and transport infrastructure in those countries"; "regular consultations on development of ESDP"; "co-operation between border services"; and "support to human dimension of regional co-operation: exchange of youth, access to education programmes".