Brussels, 05/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament debate on the Copenhagen Summit, on Wednesday, mainly covered timetable problems and the question of Turkey (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7).
Commissioner Günter Verheugen pointed out that negotiations are moving forward by the hour although there are still some major differences and a maximum number of questions must be resolved so that the European Council in Copenhagen does not have a work overload. Pressing for a result that is "neither winner nor loser" but where "everyone wins", he said that the joint Presidency and Commission proposal is honest and balanced. He also said that a solution is near at hand in Cyprus.
EPP-ED Group President Hans-Gert Pöttering restated his group's position concerning Turkey while urging all parties to come to a positive conclusion in their negotiations with all candidate countries and a solution on the Cypriot issue. Speaking of the institutional aspects, he called on the Council and the Commission not to take a decision without consulting the EP first. The behaviour of the Council and Commission was unacceptable during the last few weeks, Enrique Baron, President of the Socialist Group, stressed. He mainly underlined the consequences of the decisions of the General Affairs Council on 18 November regarding the parliamentary timetable. He felt it would not be "serious" for the Commissioners (Ed.: without portfolio) to traipse up and down the corridors of the Commission for several months after enlargement. British Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff, speaking on the subject of Turkey, said it was up to the European Council and not up to Chairman Giscard d'Estaing to decide at what rate and to what extent the Union should extend towards the East and South. He went on to say that he was sure the European Council and the Commission would be generous towards Turkey. Mr Duff, however, stressed that Turkey must make an effort, especially in order to support a political settlement in Cyprus. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Joint President of the Greens/EFA Group, expressed the hope that an interinstitutional agreement would be found on the timetable. On the subject of Turkey, he felt that the time has not yet come for fixing a date. In his view, one must say "no" not only to those who are opposed to Turkey's membership, but also to those who say it must join (evoking the pressure put on the EU by Washington, he said it was as if we were telling the United States to take on Mexico and Canada). Mr Cohn-Bendit called on President Cox to write to the Turkish authorities requesting that they allow Leila Zana to come to a meeting of all Sakharov Prize winners before the Copenhagen Summit. Recalling that Denmark, a rich country, only paid 20% of its contribution to the EU budget the first year, and then 40%, and that it has not yet made its full contribution after five years, the Danish President of the EDD Group, Jens-Peter Bonde, called for an identical system to be foreseen for the future Member States, which are far poorer than Denmark. The Chair of the constitutional committee, Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di Sinistra) also stressed that an agreement must be reached between the three institutions on the timetable, and that transitional solutions for the Commission, as for the Parliament, must be limited if not avoided. He urged for the solution that consisted in bringing European elections forward (why not on 9 May 2004, he said, stressing the symbolic value of this date: see EUROPE of 2/3 December, p.6), as well as the end of the Commission mandate, which would also make it possible to coincide the mandates of the two institutions in the future. The Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Elmar Brok (CDU), on the other hand, felt that practical solutions can be found and that the essential thing is to give the representatives of the new Member States a warm welcome without getting lost in legal quibbling.
In answer to MEPs, Council President Bertel Haarder affirmed, for his part also, that one must keep the historical perspective in mind. There must be discussion with Turkey and debates at the European Council, but this will not be the "salient point" of the Copenhagen meeting, he said. Describing the Council decisions of 18 November as a "liveable solution", Mr Haarder recognised that the Danish Presidency would have liked to reach a new date for European elections, but that, in practice, this could be difficult to achieve.
"The discussion begun by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has not had the effect that the former president had hoped for", noted Commissioner Verheugen on the subject of Turkey, noting that "those who did not wish to express their views had to confirm the Helsinki conclusions". In response to the concern expressed regarding financing and the risk run by candidate countries at the budgetary level, Mr Verheugen reaffirmed that, during the first three years, no new Member States would be a net contributor.