Copenhagen, 26/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - The members of the EPP group are determined to defend, at the IGC, the draft Constitutional Treaty presented by the Convention despite the doubts and differences that they express on certain points, such as the composition of the Commission or vote by qualified majority. After a seminar on Thursday in Copenhagen, the group's president, Hans-Gert Pöttering, called upon members of the EPP to put pressure on their governments so that the text of the Convention would be amended as little as possible. During a face to face meeting, on Friday, and within the group next Wednesday in Strasbourg, Mr Pöttering will call upon Silvio Berlusconi to do everything possible to bring the IGC to an end by the end of the year.
Christian-Democrats are already beginning their post-Convention campaign in the corridors. Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, Member of the Convention Praesidium, is cited as a possible candidate for representing the Parliament at the IGC. Mr Pöttering, however, states it is "too soon to say. Mr Méndez de Vigo is a candidate. There are other qualified candidates. The Group will come to a decision after the summer". In the longer term, "it is in our full interest to have a good president at the European Commission", Elmar Brok said for his part. With a view to the campaign for the elections in June 2004, "we must say who our candidate is" and also "what we shall do with our majority" with the excessive power granted by the new Constitution, Othmar Karas insisted. The name of Jean-Luc Dehaene (dismissed in 1994 to the advantage of Jacques Santer because of British opposition, is on everyone's lips as the EPP candidate for the next Commission presidency. The Luxembourg Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, is also mentioned but he could be handicapped by his anti-Giscard stance during the Convention, one EPP member said).
Other than the British Conservatives or Jean-Louis Bourlange, the majority of the group consider the Convention's text is a "good compromise". "If we wish to get rid of the stable European Council president, then this could entail changes concerning the Commission", Elmar Brok warned. "The text is not very innovative" as far as external relations are concerned, Alain Lamassoure remarked, while noting that "one should not underestimate what could be done in the art of peace, and we should have no illusions about what comes out of the art of war". In his view, progress in this last field could only be made through bilateral initiatives, after the Franco-German alliance model which had launched the economic and monetary Union. "The debate on this subject must be pressed forward at the EPP", he said hopefully.
The EPP-ED's show of consensus on the results of the Convention do not prevent internal division. Speaking on a moderate tone or more virulent tone, through Timothy Kirkhope or Roger Helmer, the British Conservatives affirmed their different views. Timthy Kirkhope said it was not even possible to accept the term "Constitution", which is in contradiction with the lack of codified text in the United Kingdom, or the integration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is not a matter of accepting extended EU powers in foreign policy, Roger Helmer insisted. There is no platform between the EPP and its component European Democrats, and the British Conservatives will campaign against this, he affirmed, asking whether his country "would not be better represented at the EPP by Labour".
Jean-Louis Bourlange launched a diatribe against the result of the Convention which is no more, he feels, than an "extension of the previous treaties", a "Nice plus". "There is no qualitative leap forward" and this text "does not cross the sacred door of the policy" for foreign policy, defence or criminal law, he regretted. "In public, I would say everything I can that was good about the Convention and would do everything so that the IGC distances itself from it as little as possible, but far from the public, I hope some things will be changed", Gérard Deprez admitted. He above all considered as absurd the system of Commissioners with and without voting rights, which could "damage the credibility of the Commission in some countries". "You would have to be made to engage in enhanced cooperation depending on a vote from countries that do not wish to take part", he added.
The debate within the EPP on the reference to Christianity is in principle closed even if "we would have liked more", Hans-Gert Pöttering and Elmar Brok say. The Polish representative, Zbigniew Chrzanowski, as well as the Lithuanian, nonetheless regretted the lack of an explicit reference to Christianity.
Generally in favour of the idea of a referendum to ratify the Constitution, the members of the EPP-ED nonetheless remained cautious. Mr Pöttering stressed that the German Constitution prevents a national referendum, but a European referendum for which the votes would be counted at Community level could be a solution. Mr Méndez de Vigo noted Spain's constitutional problems also. Spain cannot organise an election and a referendum at the same time.