Brussels, 09/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Italian Presidency and the European Commission confirmed on Wednesday to the European Parliament in Brussels that the main stakes at play in the European Council of Brussels will be relaunching the European economy, as well as strengthening the freedom, security and justice area. As well as the main subjects, MEPs mentioned with a certain apprehension, the continuation of the work of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the draft European constitution and were divided on the application of the rules of the stability and growth pact. In the area of asylum and immigration, the EPP-ED group cautiously welcomed the proposal to set up an operational management and co-ordination border agency.
Speaking for the Council, the Italian Minister Roberto Antonione, reviewed the results of the Rome Summit last Saturday, which launched the work of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC). Mr Antonione said that the meeting took place in a "constructive climate" and called for collective responsibility to ensure success at the IGC. He acknowledged that in Rome there had been divergences on certain elements of the draft. The Italian Minister pointed out that the main tasks at the European Council of Brussels were: economic relaunch; European immigration and asylum policy; common management of borders and immigration flows. Among the "significant subjects" in international current affairs, Heads of State and Governments will bring up, "the worrying developments" in the situation in the Middle East, Iraq just before the donors conference and the problem of nuclear arms. The Presidency is seeking to put the relaunch of the European economy at the centre of the debates, announced Mr Antonione, who also asserted that this would not involve "duplicating jobs" with the Spring Council (traditionally dedicated to the assessment of progress in the Lisbon process). According to the Presidency, the European Council will have to debate growth and the relaunch of the economy and give its opinion on the instruments to improve competitiveness. Mr Antonione indicated that the European Council should underline the importance of robust macro-economic policies, structural reforms and infrastructure development. The European Council will also bring an additional contribution on the initiative for growth and is expected to approve the list of Commission prepared projects. It will also be necessary to "bring some certainty" to the implementation deadlines for the projects, stressed Mr Antonione. The latter pointed out that the ageing population was also another challenge that Europe would have to meet and that it would be necessary to integrate the social dimension in economic policies, as well as reform the labour markets, social security and pension systems, while maintaining a high level of social protection. The Presidency is expecting that the European Council "makes a step forward" in the area of asylum and immigration. This will be a question of controlling migration flows (including readmission agreements) and the fight against illegal immigration but also a genuine Community repatriation policy.
The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, spoke on what he considers the two most important chapters of the European Council meeting, "strengthening the freedom, security and justice area and relaunching our economy". Mr Prodi announced that the Commission would be presenting the European Council with a series of measures to rapidly apply the common European policy on immigration and asylum, such as with the creation of an operational agency for border management and co-ordination (the Council may reach a decision on this subject by the end of the year, he said), whose task will not be to substitute national border guards but organise horizontal elements such as risk analysis, training, research and equipment purchases for Member States (EUROPE 3/10 p 12). Mr Prodi announced that the Commission would be presenting the European Council with its study on maritime borders in order to integrate them into the general organisation of external Union borders. The Commission will also present its proposal on introducing visas and residency permits and elements of bio-metric identification, while waiting to insert them into the main computer systems, particularly the second generation of the Integrated Schengen System (ISS), and making passports more secure. In order to combat illegal immigration, the Commission will highlight over the next few months, two instruments: readmission agreements and repatriation policy. Mr Prodi pointed out that negotiations on readmission methods for citizens illegally entering Union territory are difficult as the Commission has to obtain not just the readmission of citizens from third countries but also that of citizens from other countries through which they travel.
"In our experience, discussions will only be successful if they are part of a wider framework and contain incentives", indicated Mr Prodi, quoting as an example, the Authorised Destination Status (ADS) concluded last week with China. Another instrument consists in offering partner countries guarantee immigration quotas, preferably in the context of negotiations covering economic cooperation, development aid and market access, added the President of the Commission. He also asked Member States to strengthen "our negotiation position to attain equitable agreements for helping create the climate of collaboration and confidence necessary with our partners" (EUROPE 13/9 p 7). The Commission will be proposing in the autumn, the creation of a financial instrument to help deal with repatriation in the period 2007-06. On the basis of acquired experience, it will be necessary to plan on a genuine European Repatriation Fund within the financial perspectives that will enter into force in 2007, recommended the President of the Commission. In respect of the conclusions of the European Council of Thessaloniki, the Council is expected to finish the first phase of the implementation of the common asylum system decided on at Tampere by adopting at the end of the year, the two directives that are still needed: that on procedures and that defining refugees. "The moment has come to give our economy a new dimension", said Mr Prodi before pointing out that the Commission had adopted a European own initiative report for growth, which included another 29 major projects in the area of trans-European networks for global investment of around EUR 220 bn by 2020. Mr Prodi recognised that only a few projects were advanced enough for rapid execution.
Hans-Gert Poettering (EPP-ED) declared that Europe had to become more competitive and for that it was necessary to reform the social systems and introduced greater flexibility to the labour markets. Mr Poettering requested less complicated investments in Europe. In this context he called for the revision of the Basle 2 Convention. He also warned the Commission on the subject of legislation on chemical products, "this legislation should not lead in fine to European companies leaving the EU to invest elsewhere". On Budgetary policy, Mr Poettering said that his group was aware of the difficulties of certain governments for respecting the 3% GDP limit for the public deficit but that, "it is necessary to stick to the criteria of the stability pact". On the subject of border protection, "I ask myself if it is necessary to create a new agency". He considered that these tasks ought to be sorted out by existing structures. He hoped that the IGC would be successful this year and called on IGC members to not negotiate on all the points of the Constitution and focus uniquely on the three or four most important points.
Spaniard, Enrique Baron Crespo on behalf of the European Socialists, welcomed the EP representation and the Commission at the IGC but thought that the most sensitive issue had not been raised by Mr Antonione: the Council had to publicly legislate, in transparency. He protested that since the first meeting, the IGC had got rid of the Legislative Council. On economic and financial issues, he appealed for "intelligent reform" of the stability and growth pact to, "not be accused of stupidity". He declared that "it is necessary to be more rigorous in times of strong growth" (for example obliging Member States to maintain its budget in balance when growth reaches 3% of GDP or above and compulsive use of the results of strong growth to reduce debt). On the other hand it is necessary to allow Member States to continue investments when growth is weak. Germany and France, with a public debt of around 70%, should have more room for manoeuvre than Italy and Belgium whose public debt is more than 100% of GDP, declared Mr Baron Crespo. According to the latter, it will be necessary to debate the stability pact at the European Council before tackling the major investment projects in the area of trans-European networks and research. Mr Baron Crespo also considers that the EU has the necessary capability for providing a significant European loan and could attempt a major start-up policy.
For the Liberals, Graham Watson (United Kingdom) thought that the opening of the ITGC in Rome was a fiasco. "When we see each other at the European Council for discussing the new draft constitution, it will be necessary to remember the failure of Nice". He added that Poland and Spain had to realise that, "their intransigence on the right to vote at the Council was bad politics". He also considered that "if the Treaty of Nice had been a success we wouldn't need the Convention". Referring to the stability pact, he sarcastically added that there were, "no bubbles in the champagne" and said that France still had to convince us that it would meet its responsibilities. The Liberal leader said that "we understand" that certain governments don't want to attack France but that they had to realise that a stability pact without obligation was "worth nothing". "The eight governments hat have worked hard to respect the rules have the right to be disappointed". Their large neighbours appear irrespnsible form the point of view of the budget", he added. Mr Watosn wxelcomed the decision of the Ecofin Council to redirct the initiatitive for growth on priority projects.
Francis Wurtz (GUE/NGL, France) noticed that Germany, Italy, Portugal had all gone into recession and France was about to follow them. He added that, "Beyond this it's the Euro zone that is expereincing an economic depression and social regression. He called for an assessment of most European policies, including those of the ECB. He asked, "Who brought us this cult of stability of prices when are economies are sick, not with inflation but deflation?" According to Mr Wurtz, the ECB priority monetary policy should be, "promotion of human abilities and therefore, making jobs miore secure and training for all to make Member States less dependent on the financial markets".
Belgian, Nelly Maes (Greens/EFA), underlined that employment should not be a toy in the hands of capital. The European Council will essentially focus on relaunching the economy, pointed out Gerard Collins from Ireland on behalf of the UEN. He thought that the effective functioning of the single market had to be through the integration of the gas and electricity markets. He also asked for initiatives for the assuring payments of pensions in the future. Radical Italian Benedetto Della Vedova declared, "We will talk about relaunching the economy but I am also afraid that we'll have to talk about the stability pact and its degree of intelligence". He considered that, "We perhaps won't discuss what the institutions would contirbute to the growth of the European economy". He called on Member States to ask whether the Community budget was intelligent and if it contributedf to economic growth. In light of the conclusions of the Sapri rreport n the necessary redirection of the Community budgetfor meeting new challenges, Della Vedova said that it would be necessary to get rrid of the agricultural aspect of the EU budget and use the credits, that would subsequently be released, for helping technological innovatyion and relaunching the conomy. William Abitbol (EDD, France) said that the European Parliament had to do its best to take care of what directly concerned Europeans rather than subjects on the condition of women in Guatemala "or other similar subjects". He said that countries that do better in the EU were those that were outside the Euro zone. he asked for an amendment to the role of the ECB.