Brussels, 23/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The draft Treaty establishing the European Union adopted by the European Parliament on 14 February 1984 (see EUROPE of 16 February 1984, pages 3-5, and Editorial of 17 February) comprised innovative provisions introduced into the Single Act of 1986, the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 and the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997. They are listed by Jean-Guy Giraud (currently director of the European Parliament Bureau in Paris) in a note on the main innovations of the Spinelli Treaty which were included in the Community texts and those which were not included but which could be so by the European Convention and then by the next IGC. We recall that the 1984 draft is the fruit of the political work of the then MEP Altiero Spinelli, who, with the "Crocodile Club", had sown the first seed of what was to become the EP Committee on Institutional Affairs. The note specifies that:
(1) the provisions of the Spinelli Treaty taken on board in the EU Treaties mainly concern: - the creation of the European Union; - Union citizenship; - the principle of subsidiarity; - the institutionalisation of the European Council; - the investiture of the Commission by the European Parliament; - the principle of EP/Council legislative codecision; - cooperation in justice and home affairs; - cooperation regarding foreign and security policy; - the European monetary system- social, health, environment, consumer, culture, and development aid policies; - and the multiannual programming of expenditure.
(2) the main provisions which were not included concern: - revision of the Treaty through EP/Council codecision; - abolition of unanimity in Council (Article 23 provided for abolition of the veto within ten years); - the designation of Commission members by the Commission President; - the composition of the Union Council by ministers entrusted with the Union's affairs; - the suspension of the rights of Member States in the event of serious and permanent violation of the Treaty provisions; - financial autonomy of the Union, a system of financial equalisation in order to attenuate the excessive imbalance between regions (Ed: of the kind existing in federal States such as Germany) and the abolition of the differentiation between compulsory spending (on which the EP does not have the last word) and non-compulsory expenditure; and the introduction of the hierarchy of standards (basic law, laws, budgetary laws, regulations and decisions).
"Spinelli" dinner with participation of several Convention Members
On Wednesday evening, some twenty people took part, in Brussels, in a "Spinelli" dinner which allowed open discussion on the way the European Convention has unfolded so far. Organised on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the death of Altiero Spinelli, the dinner mainly brought together Giuliano Amato, Spinelli's former assistant Pier Virgilio Dastoli, Jean-Guy Giraud, the former directors general at the European Commission, Robert Toulemon and Claus Ehlermann, many MEPs (including the Chair of the Constitutional Committee, Giorgio Napolitano, several members of the Convention and the co-founder of the Crocodile Group, Richard Balfe). Without wishing to institutionalise this "Spinelli dinner", the participants saw it as a useful meeting between Members of the Convention and other political decision-makers and experts. It will be held again.