The Hague/Brussels, 05/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok handed Jose Maria Aznar, who is on his rounds of the capitals before the European Council of Seville, a Memorandum from the countries of the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) that stresses that the Summit should take all practical decisions enabling the Council to function correctly in an enlarged Union, but that at Seville no fundamental changes may be made demanding amendments to the Treaty. In particular, regarding the presidency of the EU Council, the Benelux considers the idea of electing a president of the European Council for a prolonged period is no "satisfactory alternative to the current practice". The Benelux, of which the Netherlands currently holds the presidency, acknowledges that the system of half-yearly rotation of the presidency of the EU Council has its inconveniences (notably the lack of continuity in the EU's external representation), but also stresses the advantages (renewed impetus every six months, the EU's visibility in Member States, useful experience for the authorities of the latter), calls for any alternative that could be studied to this system to respect the principle of equality between Member States and the current institutional balance. The Benelux says it is to look in depth at the "for" and "against" of the half-yearly rotation, and announces a paper on the subject for later. In addition:
- the Memorandum supports practical improvements to the work of the European Council, for example application of some of the Council's rules of procedure (like a well-prepared agenda for Summits, available in advance), but warns against overly rigid procedures which would undermine its ability to "provide political inspiration", and against giving the European Council the role of "legislator". In particular, the Benelux considers that the General Affairs Council should, more than it currently does, hold sessions solely devoted to preparing Summits and their follow-up, and that Member States should themselves continue to decide how to be represented at such meetings.
- regarding the General Affairs Council, the Benelux sees no advantage in the creation of a new formation of the Council composed of Deputy Prime Ministers or Ministers/State Secretaries for European Affairs. Furthermore, it considers that splitting the General Affairs Council into two separate formations would be a cure "worse than the disease", and rather proposes further developing the existing division in the General Affairs Council's agenda between horizontal affairs and external relations. In addition, according to the Benelux, at Seville they could also decide to limit the Council's agenda to questions that demand a decision or a political direction, and provide for Councils only being held when the agenda really demands it. As for the reduction of the number of Council formations,, the Benelux is open on this issue, but notes that this reduction is not an end in itself, and that European integration would benefit from the broadest possible involvement of ministers from Member states.
Jose Maria Aznar also discussed preparations for the Summit with Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister, and, on that occasion, noted that, independently of the work being done by the European Convention, the Seville Summit may consider how to make the EU Council function better.
On 3 June, Jose Maria Aznar began a round of the capitals in Helsinki, where he met Prime Minister Paavo Liiponen, and has also considered that a certain number of Council reforms could "be implemented immediately". In Helsinki, which is one of the cities candidates for headquarters of the European Food Safety Agency, Aznar acknowledged that at Seville the EU should take no decision on the agency's headquarters, "as there is no consensus".
EU Council President Josep Piqué, for his part, considered, in Madrid, that there was "a clear consensus for the Seville Summit providing the go-ahead for the creation of a new Council for external relations" responsible for foreign and security policy, separate from the General Affairs Council.