Brussels, 05/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the same time as debates at the Convention are going on, the British Council, the non-politically aligned British organisation and the Foreign Policy Centre, of which Tony Blair is a sponsor and Robin Cook, the President, intend to present some innovative ideas for revitalising the debate on Europe and in their new publication ask, "Can Brussels earn the right to act? Rather than getting stuck on the debate of "too much or too little Europe" and "structural adjustments" that can make good the European democratic deficit, authors, Mark Leonard, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre and Jonathan White, a researcher at the International Relations Institute in Prague, believe that the deficit is a really that of a delivery deficit and that this should be resolved by real accomplishments overseen by the institutions. According to the writers of the report, powers should be allocated according to performance, with the possibility of moving up and down from a national to a European level to achieve specific objectives. Such a distribution of competencies should achieve more concrete results and subsequently be more clearly understood by citizens. If results are not achieved, the principle of "reversibility" would mean that failing policies can be reviewed and reallocated. In such a system, the different European institutions have to ensure that effective governance is delivered and that on behalf of Member States, they "earn the right to act", as long as they enjoy the confidence of the latter. Their efficiency will be determined by meeting certain objectives in all the different fields, independent assessment every ten years, which would be co-ordinated by the European Court of Auditors in conjunction with the different national and audit offices. A rolling review would allow for recommendations, including the possibility of "repatriating policy". This system should enable the European Parliament, national Parliaments and the Committee of the Regions to debate the audit reports and make their own reports on these issues. These reports would be submitted to the European Council, which would make the definitive strategic decisions on any distribution of competence. Mr Leonard and Mr White are calling for the principle of "earning the right to act" to be inserted into the preamble to the Treaty instead of the reference to "ever closer union". This could "bring greater clarity…and act as a highly symbolic way of dealing with people's concerns about excessive" integration".