Rome, 06/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The opening of the Intergovernmental Conference on Saturday 4 October in Rome, tasked with completing the work of the European Convention, was marked by Silvio Berlusconi's call to the voluntarism and voluntary optimism of France and Germany while Spain and Poland reaffirmed their commitment to another Europe, that of the treaties and States. We give below a summary of the day which unfolded on 4 October 2003 in the Mussolini district of Eur.
The constitutional treaty will be the expression of "Europe's resolve to be Europe", Berlusconi
stresses when opening the IGC
It was in the convention centre to the backdrop of a reproduction of the "Ideal City" reflecting the district's architectural design that European Council President Silvio Berlusconi opened the IGC with the words: "This is the Conference of European will, the will of Europe to be Europe". After the first Treaty of Rome which was an "act of faith", he now called for an "act of will". He continued by saying: "The Constitutional Treaty that we want to adopt in this Intergovernmental Conference will be both an end and a beginning. It must mark the end of the divisions of Europe caused by the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. It must mark the beginning of a Europe with strong common institutions, able to ensure peace, security and prosperity for its citizens, and to conduct a strong, independent economic policy for development. At the same time, it must also be capable of speaking with a single voice, of assuming independent political and military responsibility in the arena of world security and of fostering the primary goods of liberty and democracy in the world". Mr Berlusconi went on to say: "It is a Europe that knows that its greatness lies in its immense civilisation. For this reason it will always preserve strong ties with the countries born out of that civilisation and to which it owes much, such as the United States" (he was referring here to the fight against totalitarianism by mentioning nazism and communism). Welcoming the "good work" done by the European Convention, Mr Berlusconi noted that the draft constitutional treaty offers a "clearer institutional architecture for the Union, based on the dual consensus of States and European citizens". The text of the draft treaty, he said, "is a felicitous synthesis of the diverse constitutional traditions and cultures of our continent and the values that they express". He went on to invite his colleagues to "seize this exceptional opportunity fully, allowing that which unites us to prevail over that which distinguishes us".
Mr Cox calls on 25 to respect Convention draft
After his speech, the European Council President held a round-the-table discussion. He first of all allowed the European Parliament president then each Head of State or Government to take the floor. The Commission president brought up the rear. Pat Cox called on each and everyone to avoid creating problems for the future ratification of the treaty in their "language and attitude". He urged for respect of the draft treaty developed by the Convention and said that, if each of the States calls for one or two changes, then they could find themselves with a "skeleton". "It is now time to move beyond endless institutional introspection and to concentrate on the EU's essential public purpose - improving the daily lives of our citizens", the European Parliament President said, calling on the Heads of State and Government to think about how the public would react "if we were to undo the Convention's work behind closed doors and end up with a miserable lowest common denominator".
Aznar and Miller insist on keeping the Nice system
"The new system with the new Member States is the Treaty of Nice", Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar insisted, affirming that the Convention did not have any mandate for changing the treaty in question. He took a stance, as did his Polish counterpart, in favour of introducing a reference to Christianity in the introduction. The Polish Prime Minister also praised the merits of the "Nice compromise" which was "accepted by all the States and peoples of the enlarged European Union". "We believe that the rejection of the Nice system, before it has ever been tried, does not have any grounds", Leszek Miller said, adding that, during the referendum on accession, the Polish people had voted for the majority calculation system adopted in Nice. He pointed out that, during the IGC, Poland plans to pay special attention to the system of presidency groups (for sectoral formations of the Council), to maintaining the "one country, one Commissioner" rule, and to ensuring that European Security and Defence Policy does not compete with NATO.
Messrs Verhofstadt, Rasmussen, Schröder and Chirac do not wish to open Pandora's box - A majority supports keeping one Commissioner for every Member State
In response to Mr Aznar, the Belgian Prime Minister recalled the terms of the Laeken declaration and stressed that the Convention had complied with its mandate. Guy Verhofstadt gave his support for the draft constitutional treaty. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was satisfied with the draft on the table but admitted that he would not be put out if they returned to the subject of the Commission composition in order to maintain one Commissioner per Member State. "France hopes to be able to conclude the Intergovernmental Conference by the end of the year and to remain as close as possible to the Convention text", Jacques Chirac said, stressing the "very strong legitimacy" of the Convention composed of a "very large majority of elected representatives". "I do not see how the IGC can succeed in just a few weeks what the Convention did not manage to do in 16 months", the French President said, calling on all to "shoulder the responsibility incumbent upon them". "We need to clarify or specify but naturally not destroy", he added, mentioning the provisions concerning the presidency of Councils, the attributions of the EU Foreign Minister, defence, economic governance within the euro zone and the balance of powers during adoption of the budget. While recognising that minor clarifications can be made to the text, the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder urged for compliance with the draft constitutional treaty. Speaking along the same lines, British Prime Minister Tony Blair felt one should bear the common interest in mind and simply make clarifications, even though, as he said, they all have questions to raise. Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson paid tribute to the Convention's work but, recalling that it had not had time to examine Part III of the EU's policies, he hoped the IGC would tackle the task. He recalled that Sweden hopes to come back to the role of the Foreign Minister, the bridging clause and structural defence cooperations. The Prime Minister of Malta, Fenec Adami, presented the claims contained in the letter from the seven (see EUROPE of 4 October, p.4). Also signing the letter was the Slovenian Prime Minister, Anton Rop, who hoped that one would return to the subject of attributing EP seats and that each State would be guaranteed a Commissioner with full rights. Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen also took a stance in favour of the principle of one Commissioner per country and trusted that a working group would be created to examine the third part of the draft constitutional treaty. Italian Vice-Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini stressed that the Convention discussed at great length issues which are still being raised today by various sides. Speaking of the reference to Christianity, he pointed out that the Italian government is in favour of a reference being made to the "Jewish-Christian traditional values" with guarantees for "the secularity of the political institutions" and "absolute respect for other religious beliefs". European Commission President Romano Prodi defended the positions adopted by the Commission in its opinion on convening the IGC. He mainly insisted that one Commissioner per country should be kept and considered that qualified majority should be extended.
The 28 adopt Rome Declaration
Before leaving each other, the 28 Heads of State and Government as well as the Presidents of the European Parliament and Commission, who were still to lunch with President Ciampi in Castelporziano, approved a "Rome Declaration" whereby they confirm the importance of the commitment to give the European Union a constitutional text based on equality between States, peoples and citizens, allowing it to act effectively and consistently at world level and to consider the draft Convention treaty as a good basis on which to begin the work of the Intergovernmental Conference. They again express the hope that negotiations on the Constitution will come to an end before the elections at the European Parliament in June 2004 in order to allow citizens to vote in full knowledge of the facts regarding the future Union architecture.
During press conferences at the end of the morning, the various participants repeated their positions but they also sought to play down the importance of the problem posed by Spain and Poland, even if one Foreign Minister went as far as to affirm that Poland must not hope to use a veto when it is not yet even a member of the Union. "We are condemned to success", President Pat Cox said, insisting on the need to "make collective European interest prevail" and to keep to the timetable proposed by the Italian Presidency. "European interest is not the sum total of the individual interests of Member States", President Silvio Berlusconi said for his part answering a question on deadlines by saying: "It is not Mr Berlusconi but the European Council who has called on Thessaloniki to end in December". He went on to explain that it would not be dramatic if the IGC had to be extended into January, as the main thing is that the final text should be known to citizens before European elections.
This was a meeting without any added value, declared the Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker before adding: 'those devoting themselves to reading newspapers, even weeklies, have understood nothing'. The German Chancellor Gerhard Shröder said that the process of enlargement and the Constitution were two sides of the same coin. In this connection, French President Jacques Chirac added that there was a link with negotiations on funding of the Union. They all maintained an optimistic tone while in another press room, Polish Prime Minister Leszlek Miller asserted that he was not proposing any compromise for unblocking the situation. José Maria Aznar explained at the same time that, “We are not requesting any modification. We only want what already exists to be respected. Austrian Chancellor, Wolgang Schüssel added that, “the walls are there. Now we need to build the house in such a way that hundreds of millions of Europeans feel comfortable with it.
At the end of the press conference, Heads of State and governments went to Castelporziano to eat with the Italian President. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi used the occasion for saying, “Your responsibility is no less than other governments that gave life to the Treaty of Rome”…the essence of the for the IGC to be finished is already acquired with the draft constitutional treaty.
Foreign Affairs Ministers start taking draft of convention to pieces
While Heads of State and Government were received by president Ciampi, Foreign Affairs Ministers dined before beginning work under the Chairmanship of Franco Frattini, the work of the IGC at a Ministerial level.
The dinner provided the occasion for a discussion on the Convention, which visibly disturbed the Belgian Minister Louis Michel. “Sometimes we ask ourselves whether the Convention had been of any use at all to some countries!” He explained to the press before asserting to accession counties, “We can't simply belong to Europe insofar as what it can provide economically and for sustenance: Europe is above all a political project”. He added that he thought that there was a lack of experience and perspectives. He also thought they were not yet measuring what they had in common, which would be something positive. On the attitude of the two recalcitrant countries Mr Michel pointed out that European were promised that one was going to create a convention and that they were going to participate in their future. He declared that, “Today after all that had worked well, we are going to tell them - you know, it was just an exercise in style. What counts is Nice. That is a lack of democracy and everyone knows Nice was a failure.
In a more moderate tone Dominique de Villepen recognised that he had had to point out that everyone was represented at the Convention and that the draft constitution enjoyed extensive legitimacy and that everyone was aware of the need for a result.
During the final press conference, Italian Minister Franco Fratttini warned Spain and Poland that it was obvious that the treaty required unanimity and that once the moment for decision making arrived some countries would not agree on the amendments of a system adopted at Nice. He explained that these countries had a political choice: that of preventing the agreement.
The burial of the Legislative Council
Summing up the work of the first Ministerial Conference of the IGC, which finished a little after 18H, Mr Frattini pointed out that two of the three points in discussion were resolved and the third, if it still requires further reflection, is on the right road. The first subject tackled was the Legislative Council, which constituted one of the innovations produced by the Convention and Mr Frattini pointed out that the "immense" majority wanted to get rid of it. EUROPE would like to point out that the Convention, mainly made up of MEPs, was supportive of the idea of transparency and improving parliamentary control through the Legislative Council. Ministers then looked at sector groupings at the Council and were of the opinion that in keeping with the decision of the decision of Seville, the number of groupings should be limited. This number did not figure in the Constitution and would continue to be set by the European Council. Ministers also brought up criteria for the rotation of the sector group presidencies of the Council. Some countries said that they wanted to stick with the current six month rotation. Austria and Portugal did not understand why the current system was being criticised. Belgium is proposing that every grouping elect its own president for a period still to be determined. The United Kingdom considered that the President of the European Council ought to Chair the General Affairs Council.. Germany and France were worried about "coherency" with the different complex "geometric" presidential team systems that were being put forward. The Italian Presidency is going to come up with proposals for trying to clarify this issue at the next meeting on 14 October. It will also draft amendments concerning the two first points, indicated Mr Frattini.