Cardiff, 29/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - "Europe's leadership is too weak. The musical chairs of the Council Presidency produces inefficiency and inconsistency. The enforcement of European law is too haphazard", said Tony Blair in Cardiff on 28 November in a speech on the future of Europe. What should the British position be on that future? he wondered, answering: "we must end the nonsense of "this far and no further". There are areas in which Europe should and will integrate more, and it will do so". The British Prime Minister cited fighting crime and illegal immigration, carrying economic and security and defence reforms (on the euro, he repeated that "we should of course join if the economic conditions are right", and that "a single currency with a single market for Europe makes economic sense"); - "we should understand that out opposition to Europe as some federal superstate is not a British obsession", but is shared by "most members of the EU"; - the answer must not be "reaching intergovernemtalism as a weapon against European institutions … , but recognise that Europe is and should remain an alliance of European and national Governments". But "we need supranational European institutions", Blair admitted, noting that "without qualified majority voting and without a strong Commission" the programme of economic reform, so dear to London, "will never materialise …, it would be strangled by vested interests opposed to change. So a weak Commission is contrary to our interests".
What should be expected of the European Convention? For Mr. Blair, there needs to be a proper Constitution spelt out in "simple language", making it clear that it is a question of "a union of nations and not a superstate". Then, there needs to be "a radical strengthening of the subsidiarity principle". As for the Charter of Fundamental Rights, "we welcome, of course, a declaration of basic rights common to all European citizens", but, "we cannot support a form of treaty incorporation that would enlarge EU competence over national legislation .., especially in areas such as industrial law where we have long and difficult memories of the battles fought to get British law in proper order".
Regarding the reform of the Council, Blair repeated that, according to him, "there has to be a fixed Chair of the European Council", like the Commission and Parliament have "stable" chairmanships. However, as some countries worry that a fixed President would lead to the large nations dominating, he suggests a kind of "team Presidency", in which "the chairs of the principle Councils would be divided amongst Member states for a decent length of time, with the more permanent Chair of the European Council to co-ordinate that team". According to him, "within any team at any one time there will obviously be a majority of small countries because there are 19 small countries and 6 big ones in a Europe of 25".
As for the European Commission, Mr. Blair is in favour of strengthening its authority to make sure "Europe's rules are obeyed and redress is available quickly in circumstances of a breach of the law" However, he confirms his opposition to the European Parliament electing the President of the Commission, as the Commission must not become prisoner to the majority in Parliament. "I am not arguing for an apolitical Commission, I am arguing for an impartial Commission", he said, considering that, on this, we should not stray too far from the European model as we know it.
On defence policy, Mr. Blair once again places emphasis on it being complementary to NATO, whereas for foreign policy, he is in favour of it being strengthened "step by step", stressing that the lead responsibility "should remain with the Council". According to him, the powers of the High Representative should be strengthened, who should chair the Foreign Ministers' Council, have "an independent right of initiative" and "be represented overseas in common European, not just Commission delegations". He does, however, reject the idea of a High Representative/Commissioner for external relations "double hat": "this cannot be a way, through the back door, of communitising the CFSP", Blair warned (whereas be believes that it "is time to comminitise much of the Justice and Home Affairs pillar").