Brussels, 04/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - At the end of a behind-closed-doors meeting last weekend in Petersberg, near Bonn, between the EPP members of the Convention and leaders of the European People's Party (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4), the President of the Party, Wilfried Martens and Chairman of the European Parliament Foreign and Security Affairs Committee, Elmar Brok published the following press release on lessons to draw from the Iraqi crisis. Here is the text in full:
"A United Foreign Policy of the Union is now a Political Imperative. The Iraqi crisis has, once again, shown that Europe's foreign policy is characterised by division, and even complete inefficiency. The rules laid down more than 10 years ago on a common foreign and security policy in the Treaty of Maastricht are often openly infringed or ignored. Europe does not speak with one voice in the world - because there is no common voice. The EPP is well aware of these disappointing facts. However, this should not lead to frustration. It must make us more determined than ever. We owe it to our common values, to the interests of our citizens and to the international community that Europe eventually becomes able to act, in solidarity with the common European interest and with loyalty to the Union and between its Members. The EPP pleads for making use of the European convention to make a decisive step forward towards a United Foreign Policy of the European Union. A Constitution cannot compensate for the lack of political will on the part of Member States, but it can create a framework in which a common will can be more efficiently created. Taking into account the very promising results of the Convention working Groups on "External Action" (Jean-Luc Dehaene) and "Defence" (Michel Barnier), the EPP considers the following six points to be essential elements of a future United Foreign Policy.
1. It shall be a constitutional duty for all of the European Union to define and observe the common interest in all foreign and security policy matters, and to subject all such matters to a common institutional process at the level of the Union, allowing for joint decisions and permanent consultations in the overall interest of the Union.
2. Qualified Majority Voting will be the rule in all matters of foreign and security policy with the exception of matters with military implications. In case of the invocation of a vital interest, this can be overcome by the European Council. In military matters, Member States that are willing to co-operate closer may do so using the method of reinforced co-operation.
3. Europe needs to have a European minister for Foreign Affairs, which shall be endowed with a dual legitimacy from the Council and the European Parliament, but be firmly integrated into the college of the European Commission, with full voting rights. The European Foreign Minister shall chair the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers.
4. The European Minister for foreign Affairs, implementing the decisions of the Council, shall be supported by a single administration within the Commission. A Diplomatic service of the Union should be created, the Commission representations in third countries forming an integral part thereof. The officials of this Diplomatic Service shall be recruited both from the European Commission and from national Foreign Services.
5. The Commission should be the only operational administration f the Union.
6. The Union's foreign and security policy should be financed from the budget of the Union which for this purpose must be endowed with the required financial resources. The budgetary procedure of the Union - with equal participation of Council and Parliament - shall apply also to the foreign and security policy of the Union".