Brussels, 20/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - British Liberal-Democrat Andrew Duff presented a contribution to the press on Monday of which he is the author and that has been signed by 36 other members of the European Convention, among whom, notably, Elmar Brok (CDU), Lamberto Dini (Italian parliament), Belgian Socialist Elio Di Rupo, Luxembourg Socialist Ben Fayot, Alain Lamassoure (UDF), Jurgen Meyer (Budesrat), Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Mchel, and Austrian Green Johannes Voggenhuber. This contribution, which he then presented in plenary, pools 25 key-elements for which the signatories believe a consensus has been achieved within the Convention, Mr. Duff explained, citing: - recognition of qualified majority voting and the co-decision procedure as the rule, with as consequence EP intervention in agricultural policy; - the use of a "super qualified" majority for institutional provisions, tax measures and the use of article 308; - limiting the Council's executive powers to co-ordinating macro-economic policies, the conduct of security and defence policy, dialogue over matters of police and justice; - limiting the right of initiative for States to domestic security and external policy and legal co-operation; - the public nature of the Council when acting as legislator.
Mr. Duff also declared that he was "very sceptical" at the Franco-German proposals of a "double presidency", stressing that it "introduces a rivalry" that could harm the institutional balance. France's Alain Lamassoure, who also took part in the press conference, said that the Franco-German contribution comprised both good and bad news. The first is that "for the first time, French leaders agree to Europe having its own leaders", he said, considering that there would be "two presidents but only one real authority". He then explained that, on the one hand, there would be a president elected by the European Parliament through universal suffrage, who would have an administration of 15,000 people, and, on he other, a president elected by 25 with a secretariat. For Lamassoure, "the bad news is the lack of will of the authors to implement a genuine common foreign and security policy". "The provision seeks to give the impression that we want to act together (…) but in fact we want to pretend", said the member of the Convention, noting that they were still far from a situation where the President of the European Council would replace the 4 members of the EU within the G8 and that "the EU continues today to be perceived as the 16th and tomorrow the 26th partner". He then stressed that the Iraqi case was, "unfortunately to be large scale opportunity to verify the existence of a will for joint action".