Oxford, 21/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, added his voice to those, increasingly numerous, which have spoken out to denounce the inconveniences of the present six monthly EU Council presidencies (see "A look behind the news" of 18 May, notably concerning the ideas of Giuliano Amato and Robert Toulemon, and of 17 May, p.6, on the suggestions made by Javier Solana). In the speech made at St Antony's College Oxford, Mr Aznar admitted that the present rotations will become unusable in the future, and that it would thus be crucial to consider a new system. He repeated the idea of a European Council President who would hold his duties for a period lasting from two and a half to five years, through a former Head of State or government. I do not think of anybody specific, I do not even think of Prime Minister Blair, joked Mr Aznar (whose name, as that of Mr Blair, have been mentioned in this context). To ensure the continuity and coherence of the work, the European Council President could be, according to him, seconded by a presidential team formed of five or six Heads of State or government, according to the system of rotation, and these groups of countries would be responsible for presiding over the sector based Councils.
Mr Aznar also proposed, among others that: - The European Council have the power to dissolve the European Parliament, on proposal from the Commission; - the Commission have a number of Commissioners below that of Member States, as long as the geographic balance be maintained; - a future national parliaments Charter guaranteeing the participation of these parliaments in the European process (Mr Aznar noted that he asked the European Convention to consider the enormous rates of electoral abstention in the European elections). Mr Aznar, for whom the adoption of a catalogue of powers would be a mistake, also called for consideration to be given to the EU's presence in the UN Security Council. While recognising that this concerns an area where it is particularly difficult to cede packets of sovereignty, Mr Aznar feels that what we could obtain from joint action is far greater that what we have to loose.