Brussels, 04/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - In an interview published in the Financial Times on Thursday, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joschka Fischer again insisted on the need for the IGC to approve the Convention's proposal to introduce a double-majority system of voting at the Council for countries and populations. In reply to those (especially Spain and Poland) who are seeking to keep the Nice provisions, he declared that the Treaty of Nice is "a bad treaty, an insufficient treaty and we would have to pay a heavy price for this". Mr Fischler was also opposed to the idea (put forward at the conclave of Naples, notably by Jack Straw: Editor's note) that he IGC postponed any decision on the voting system at the Council. He also considered that insistence by small Member States on having a European Commissioner for each country would encourage "more bureaucracy".
Overall, Mr Fischer warned that if some Member States tried to put a brake on the Process of European integration, countries like Germany and France would, "press ahead regardless" and "we will have the opposite of what we want: namely a multispeed EU, where cracks will appear".