Bonn, 03/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - In a meeting behind closed doors in Petersberg (close to Bonn) on Friday to Sunday, the European People's Party (chaired by Wilfried Martens) confirmed its opposition to the Franco-German idea of a full-time President of the European Council, calling for a strengthening of the role of the President of the European Commission and the creation of a European foreign minister with their own diplomatic corps. Both Wilfried Martens and Elmar Brok, President of the EP's Foreign Affairs Committee, called for decisions concerning the foreign and defence policy to be taken in the future by qualified majority voting, apart from those involving military action. Europe will return to this.
Chairman Valéry Giscard d'Estaing briefed the EPP on the work of the European Convention. One of the other politicians attending the meeting was the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.