Porto Carras, 20/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - At the end of the debate with Heads of State and governments and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on Friday morning, Costas Simitis, the President of the European Council, was pleased to declare, "For the first time we have a draft Constitution". He also indicated that, "It is a very important day on the road to Europe's unification" and welcomed the "excellent result of the Convention". Looking at the content of the conclusions, he explained that the "draft constitution is a good basis for starting in the Inter-governmental Conference (IGC)" which should approve the constitutional treaty as soon as possible and in time, for allowing European citizens to get to know it before the European elections in June 2004". The future Italian Presidency is being called on to launch the procedure for arranging the IGC in October 2003. The Constitutional treaty will be signed by Member States of the enlarged Union as soon as possible after 1st May 2004. The European Council has also authorised the Convention to continue its work till 15 July in order to finish examining part III (policies of the Union) of the draft treaty. The conclusions mention a "purely technical" task but addressing the press, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said, "We have very clearly interpreted the word 'technical" as the chance to speak about everything because everything is technical". Replying to a question, Mr Simitis considered that, "all Member States agree on the fact that the IGC should especially no re-open the same points, even if certain improvements are possible".
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing informed the press that the draft treaty had received, "broad and warm support" and that, "many have stressed that they would adopt the draft as it is with a few amendments". He also added, "It isn't a compromise, it's a synthesis", hoping that, "the work of the IGC: (Editor's note) is swift… and does not distance itself from our draft, because Europeans are now waiting for their constitution". The President of the Convention also outlined that, "Our problem is not the length of the IGC, it's the quality of the work and the final product". He also hoped that the IGC would not be too cut off from civil society and that it worked in transparency. In answer to a question posed by a Polish journalist, asking him how he would react to the ideas of the Polish Primate, who compared Kruschev to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, criticising him for not including any references to Christianity in the Constitution, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing exclaimed, "You lack a little Christian charity". He also explained that the Convention had responded favourably to the two requests from the churches and had introduced "religious" in the preamble. He explained that he did support a mention of Christianity but had not found consensus in the Presidium. In response to another question, he said that the expression "united in diversity" could act as a common currency for Europe. With regard to qualified majority, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing did not believe that the IGC could go any further than the Convention.
President Romano Prodi pointed out that "Today, we have a complete draft…concrete…well balanced". Prodi did not hesitate in talking of a "real step forward…We haven't obtained generalisation of qualified majority voting" but he recognised that the "IGC should still work", notably for "anticipating any risk of a two-speed College".
Very positive welcome in France, Germany and Denmark - Tony Blair speaks of "excellent basis"
- Small countries still afraid of weakening Commission
- Spain and Poland stick to Nice and defend Christianity
In a declaration to Heads of State and governments, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing said that, "I am happy to be able to present you with a single document that contains a Constitutional treaty for Europe". He also pointed our that this draft had been "adopted by a wide consensus" (he indicated that five Convention Members had redrafted an alternative report based on a "Eurosceptic approach"). In his presentation of the draft Constitution, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing highlighted the numerous innovations that it contained (he made a special mention of the creation of a Minister of Foreign Affairs, description of the sharing out of competencies, single legal personality, simplification of procedures and the reduction of the number of instruments) and he stated that the European Parliament was the "main winner in our Constitution", which extends codecision from 37 to around 80 areas.
President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing also underlined the extremely active participation of national Parliaments at the European Convention and was convinced that "in time this cooperation between national parliamentarians those from the European Parliament would be organised on a regular basis if we want to see a genuine 'European Political Constituency' as the first step to a genuine European democracy". He also highlighted the fact that the Convention had refused extremist solutions that would have led to a federation or to a reduced confederation of aquests" and had made the choice in favour of an "original system reflecting the duel nature" of a Union of States and peoples. He affirmed that "This draft Constitutional treaty represented an edifice and an equilibrium", adding, "It is in your hands, you, the Heads of State and governments of Europe,, as this is not a technical debate, but the result of a Constitution". He asked them to ensure that any upset in the balance by questioning the Constitution's provisions, did "not put the solidity of the edifice in danger".
The debate at the European Council revealed three groups of countries. Those who are satisfied with the results of the Convention: Germany, Denmark, France, and to a certain extent, the United Kingdom. Chancellor Schröder and Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that they would agree to the draft as it was. Mr Schröder also sought an IGC very soon. Addressing the press, the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer spoke of a "short, intensive" IGC that did not overturn the package. Jacques Chirac described it as a "good draft…in keeping with the goals" and Tony Blair welcomed a "balanced draft…and excellent basis".
The Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt said that although there was one area, "where progress could still be made, that of qualified majority…the convention had done good work". He also stated that the same spirit of seeking to go forward, which had reigned at the Convention, should be continued at the IGC. He considered that the Convention had to finalise its work in July and mentioned important aspects such as the services of general interest, the open method of coordination, application of qualified majority and revision clauses in part 4. Addressing the press, Mr Verhofstadt said that there had been an "almost unanimous desire to finish before the end of the year" at the Convention. The Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balenende focused on the need to not undo the result of the Convention and warned against the problem of legitimacy that in the opposite case, could occur at the IGC. While highlighting the numerous advances in the draft treaty, Luxembourg Prime Minister, Jean Claude Juncker, also appealed for more qualified majority voting and clarification of certain provision, notably those concerning the Presidency of the European Council and the Council groupings (also see p 9).
Following on from other Heads of governments from the small or medium countries, Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schussel admitted that he was afraid of a possibility of a weakened Commission and insisted on equality between countries, while opposing a system that could lead to two classes of Commissioners. Hungarian Prime Minister, Peter Medgyessy said more or less the same, but like his Czech counterpart, Vladimir Spidla, did not say that he was opposed to the rapid conclusion of the IGC if certain amendments were introduced to the Convention's draft. While describing the draft as satisfactory, overall, the Slovenian Prime Minister, Anton Rop, indicated that he wanted a clearer delineation of the role of the President of the European Council, as well as qualified majority voting that was closer to the definition of Nice. During the Liberals summit, he spoke about qualified majority voting equal to 60% for States and 60% for populations.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, mentioned the "interesting starting point" but mentioned many points of dissatisfaction and in particular, called for "respect of the balance of Nice". Spanish Foreign Minister, Ana Palacio was adamant in her address to journalists, "Spain would fight to keep Nice within the IGC".
Together with Portuguese and Polish counterparts, Mr Aznar insisted on a reference to Christianity being inserted into the preamble of the future Constitution. Polish Prime Minister, Lezek Miller was just as critical and said the same thing, while insisting on cooperation with NATO. In an address to the press, Miller announced that Poland would be fighting at the next IGC to keep the institutional arrangement of the Treaty of Nice, notably that involving the mechanism for qualified majority voting and vote sharing at the Council, which is particularly favourable towards Poland, considering its demographic size. He also announced that Poland would sort out his problem in the same way that it had dealt with accession negotiations at Copenhagen (where the Polish delegation had fought till the last minute to obtain a better agreement). Mr Miller considers that, "nothing has happened since Nice that should justify changing the institutional system of Nice…this question is fundamental for us", he warned.