Brussels, 14/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference on Tuesday in Brussels, representatives of the European Parliament at the Intergovernmental Conference, MEP (Partido Popular, Spain), Indigo Mendez d Vigo and the German Social Democrat, Klaus Hänsch launched a serious warning after the second IGC session on Monday evening in Luxembourg (see p 3). They attacked the attitude of Foreign Affairs Ministers who were undermining the work begun in Rome on 4 October. The MEP took part in the actual IGC but not at the dinner.
Mr Mendez de Vigo, who remained moderate despite pointing out the very real risk of putting the consensus achieved at the Convention in danger. Mr Hänsch was even sharper and painted a picture of Ministers who not only endangered the cause for the Convention results but who were seeking to a situation that existed even before Nice. In this sense he explained that they were running the risk of returning to a formula where the large Member States had two Commissioners. Mr Hänsch said, "It became clear yesterday that if we go back on the principle of a Commissioner per country, some countries would want two Commissioners. Mr Mendez observed, "an attempt to modify the consensus reach on the number of Commissioners", with certain pretexts of wanting to maintain Nice. The latter also pointed out that the treaty of Nice stipulated that with 27 Member States it would be necessary to reduce the number of Commissioner and "we will be 27 in 2007", which would mean that "those who want to maintain Nice will be against those who are against Nice". Mr Hänsch also explained that some Ministers thought the title of "High Representative", indeed "Secretary General" preferable to that of "Minister for Foreign Affairs". He also said that there was a "strong tendency" to introduce internal rules for working from the institutions, which would damage "simplicity and clarity" of the Convention draft. He added that "if this continues there will only be left a compilation of compromises from a coherent draft, based on the lowest common denominator".
On the question of whether anyone had made a new proposal, Mr Mendez replied, "We are still at the stage where every Minister gives his position". The two MEPs underlined that contrary to what had happened at the Convention, there had been no dialogue between the participants. The Italian Presidency had not proposed a compromise yet but Mr Hänsch hoped that it would do so during the "conclave" on 28-29 November in Rome so that the European Council did not have to find a compromise in the early hours of the morning like at Nice.
Why isn't it working. Mr Mendez replied that "it is the system" and he compared it to the Convention bringing together different and legitimate democracies that were "open and transparent" and the IGC which is a "forum without any debate". Mr Hänsch had "no criticism to make of the Italian Presidency overseeing the work as well as it possibly could". Mr Hänsch also noted that governments like those of France, Germany, the Benelux countries and with certain quarters in the United Kingdom and Denmark, were trying to reach an agreement on the Convention draft. Mr Hänsch added that, "there are too many governments that did not take the Convention seriously and which did not understand that the result had benefited from legitimacy, including that of public opinion".