London, 28/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - British Minister for Europe Peter Hain said in an address to the Law Society on 25 June that, following the reforms of the EU Council agreed to in Seville, "the next stage must be to find alternatives to the stop-start effect of the six-monthly rotation between Member states holding the Council Presidency." This system has prevented the development of a strategic agenda and a "grown-up relationship with the Commission and Parliament", he considers, recalling: "we have suggested different national presidents for each Council serving a longer period - say two and a half years (which is half a Commission and Parliament term) - working together as a team, meeting regularly to implement the European Council's strategic agenda". Peter Hain added: "We see merit in this team being led by a more permanent full-time president of the European Council. A major figure, perhaps a recently retired head of government. Someone Europe's citizens would identify as the driving force of the European agenda. Someone President Bush would get on the phone to, their legitimacy being that they are responsible to elected heads of government." As for the Commission, Hain considers that its role of "initiator and implementor of the legislative and other measures needed to deliver the programme the European Council will set" needs reinforcing, "This means looking at whether - after enlargement - we will not have too many Commission cooks making the broth. Every country should continue to have a Commissioner, but it makes no sense to create a new job for one every time a new country joins. We also need to look at the way the Commission deals with legislation, whether it consults sufficiently effectively, and whether it has the expertise and resources to oversee its implementation". The European Parliament must be a "strong and responsible co-legislator to provide a balance to Governments. And it needs to be strengthened in its role of holding the Commission to account", says Mr. Hain, for whom, "we need to find a new, collective role for national parliaments in the EU decision-making process. This might centre on the diving line between what actions should be take at an EU level and what at national level, though we do not want to add a new big bureaucratic institution: an ad hoc body might suffice". He then concluded: "Like most Britons, I am neither a Europhile nor a Eurosceptic. I am a practical European".