Strasbourg, 04/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Wednesday afternoon, the President of the Socialist group Enrique Baron and German Social Democrat Klaus Hänsch, member of the European Convention Praesidium, outlined the position adopted by the PES the day before on institutional reform that will be presented to the conference in Birmingham at the end of August attended by the leaders of the European Socialist Parties, explained Baron, describing debate in the group as lively. He said they had heard 75 speakers and has focussed on the most controversial issues, explaining that most of the PES favoured a Constitution that citizens could understand. Baron also said that the PES opposes any type of Council directory and was calling for the election of the President of the European Commission by the European Parliament and also, for motives of transparency, for a European tax that did not increase the tax burden on taxpayers.
The PES came out very clearly (for the first time ever) in favour of the European Convention presenting a Constitution for a federation of states and peoples and for the European Charter of Fundamental Rights to be incorporated into the Treaty, "unmodified" added Klaus Hänsch (it is known that some Convention members want the text to be added to before it's added to the Treaty). He added that they has decided to change the system of a rotating Council Presidency in order to have more continuity but have not yet decided on whether there should be a Presidency of the European Council of three or five years. He said that the group had not taken a position about cutting the number of European Commissioners, but had called for the Commission's internal structure to be changed. He clearly rejected the idea of creating a second chamber, but called for the EU to be given legal personality and for the Council to clearly distinguish between its legislative and "intergovernmental" executive role. Other PES priorities outlined by Hänsch:
Enlargement of majority voting in all areas (including the budget) and co-decision; more anchorage in growth, full employment and social cohesion in the treaty, in order to strengthen the social dimension of monetary union (see EUROPE yesterday p 6) on the subject of the EPP's institutional seminar on the Côte d'Azur).