Luxembourg, 14/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The second Ministerial session of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the future European Constitution on Monday evening in Luxembourg confirmed the opposition of a majority of Member States, current and future to the European Convention proposal for a more compact European Commission with only fifteen Commissioners with full voting rights.. The responses given by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs to the questionnaire they submitted to the Italian Presidency were a repetition of the well known and reaffirmed positions of the last few weeks. The United Kingdom continues to oppose the name of "EU Minister" of Foreign Affairs", as well as it being a role requiring "two hats". The Ministerial dinner with Commissioner Michèle Barnier and the EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana focused exclusively on defence and confirmed the reticence of several countries to the possibility for certain Member States to make commitments between them to "structured cooperation" in this area. Institutional issues and that which Spain and Poland regard as essential, such as vote weighting at the Council, will be discussed on Thursday morning by the Intergovernmental Conference at a Heads of State and Government level (from the 15 and accession countries accompanied by their Foreign Affairs Ministers), before the opening of the European Council of Brussels.
On the composition of the European Commission in the future, on Monday in Luxembourg, the ten accession countries and the six current "small" members - Austria, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Greece - continued to demand a Commissioner per Member State, whereas founding countries, especially Germany, France and the Benelux, indicated that they could agree to a scam of 15 members. Germany had already said that if the "small" countries insist on having a Commission with one member per country then the "current large countries - also Poland - should also in the future each have a Commissioner, which would end up with a Commission of 31 members. Luxembourg would be prepared to propose a compromise solution, an 18 member Commission instead of 15, which the Italian Presidency described as "food for thought".
According to the Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, it is clear that there is "very little support" for the European Convention's proposal on the composition of the European Commission. "We will remain firm" on the issue of what the Austrian Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner promised (Austria and Finland led the resistance of the small countries, whereas Irish Minister Dick Roche repeated what his country wanted, as did a majority of other countries for a Commissioner per Member State with full voting rights. George Papandreou wanted the Convention draft to be amended in order to ensure that there was Commissioner per Member States with equal rights. Many delegations (Finland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Poland, Slovakia and Latvia) were opposed to the idea of presenting in the future, as proposed by the Convention, three candidates from which to choose a future Commissioner. At the end of the debate, the Italian Presidency pointed out that all agreed on the need of a n effective Commission and respect for equality between Member States but that they were divided on the way of getting there.
As for the EU Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw was keen in pointing out the disadvantages of the "two hats" of answering to both the Commission (as Vice President) and the European council. Mr Straw was opposed to the term "Minister", suggesting that it would be better to speak of an "External EU Representative" or even "Secretary General for Foreign Affairs". Several other delegations (such as the Czech Republic, without opposing the "two hats" did demand clarifications on the competencies of such a future Minister for EU Foreign Affairs.
During dinner, focusing exclusively on defence, Ministers all indicated their support" for the Convention's proposals for extending the Petersberg missions (for the war on terrorism), the "solidarity clause" (for terrorist non state aggressions) and that creation of a European Weapons Agency. Several countries, however, were supportive of the North Atlantic Alliance, notably the United Kingdom but also Baltic countries which expressed scepticism about some Member States being committed to "structured cooperation" between them in this area. Some countries such as Finland and Denmark insisted that this kind of cooperation remained open to all Member States (as is the case for current "reinforced cooperation"). The United Kingdom and Finland in particular were opposed to the introduction of a collective defence clause" in the treaty.
Commissioner Michèle Barnier wanted to provide assurances that they should maintain the possibility of close cooperation between some Member States in defence by perhaps allowing other groupings so that this structured cooperation would be "inclusive" and not "exclusive".