Brussels, 04/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday in Brussels, Romano Prodi, Graham Watson and François Bayrou seized the opportunity provided by a seminar organised by the Liberal Group at the European Parliament to give a first picture of what could tomorrow be a political movement bringing together all those at the centre of the European political spectrum who wish to bring European democracy to life and give it the means to be effective in Europe and in the world.
The president of the Liberal Group was the first to put sound to the picture by initiating an oral defence for a Europe built on more solid foundations in order to successfully achieve its own enlargement, become more convincing on the international scene and create a world of greater justice and freedom. Graham Watson alluded to James Madison and urged for a federal Europe after having stressed that "what we win in bilaterals we too often lose in continental terms". After having said this (with reference to the release of the British detainees at the Guantanamo base), he mentioned other inconsistencies in European policy and above all the EU's position in its relations with Russia, made ill at ease by remarks made by Mr Berlusconi. He went on to insist on the fact that Europe must speak with a single voice, as it does when it comes to trade and commercial matters. Graham Watson gave his statement of belief: "I believe that a more effective Europe abroad actually means a permanent political shift here at home. It means securing the political centre in Europe. Without the internationalism and multilateralism of the political movements at the centre of the political spectrum, Europe will not resolve its issues with international government in the areas of security, justice, migration and the environment. Without the centre's profound commitment to democracy and civil and political freedom, Europe will not invest enough in democratisation and development abroad. Without the centre's commitment to the power of free enterprise and free trade Europe will not be an engine and guarantor of global prosperity. The more Europe becomes a global player, the more Liberal it needs to be".
UDF President François Bayrou justified the participation of Centrists and Liberals at one and the same meeting with "common concerns and, I hope in future, a common resolve". It is a question of "reflecting on what can be a democratic pole" for Europe, he said before going on to say: "We are in this room today because we believe that Europe is the only way for citizens to be able to once again take their affairs in hand". He went on to explain that, if Europe can allow citizens to take on the nation again, it is not at all the case today with the institutional organisation which is made only for "the initiated". Speaking of Iraq, Mr Bayrou regretted that the Council remained firm and had not provided the slightest image or sound to Europeans for which "the only place of democracy was the Security Council". Noting that "research policy has broken down at national level" where is it "not carried by sufficient political resolve", he urged for the development of an ambitious European research policy but also deplored excessive Community bureaucracy. "The de-possession of citizens by a distant administration compromises the great European ideal", François Bayrou said, evoking decisions on hunting and the environment. In his view, a democratic Europe is a Europe whose decision-making mechanisms are comprehensible and which provides citizens with the possibility of taking part in the major debates on the future (defence, foreign affairs, research, coordination of economic policies). "Today, everything is happening as if enlargement had signed the end of political union in Europe", Mr Bayrou noted. He said he wished to "rebuild the project of a democratic political union in Europe (…) and rewrite for the 21st century the project set out by the fathers of Europe for the 20th century".
In answer to a question on participatory democracy and direct democracy, Mr Bayrou said he approved both but insisted that one should begin by giving citizens institutions that they are able to understand and sufficient information on what these institutions do. "What the citizens see is, from time to time, a vague directorate with variable geometry", he regretted, considering such a directorate as "anachronistic". He again took up the proposal that he had made earlier: that the EU should buy columns in newspapers to diffuse its "agendas" and allow citizens to express their expectations to the attention of their MEPs and governments. On the matter of the Constitution, he said: "We have missed an opportunity and I wonder how we can make up for this failure". He expressed doubt about the "compromise close to hand" evoked by Jean-Claude Juncker. Later, speaking of the "disarray" of a number of current EPP members, Mr Bayrou said: "Twenty-five years ago, the EPP was a political current with a line (…) of clearly federalist values (…). Today, preference is given to number rather than ideas".
The president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi obviously did not wish to lay himself open to criticism from those who would have reproached him for taking a partisan attitude. He simply spoke of a number of considerations on transatlantic relations and on the role of the European Union in the world. He did, however, give his support for Mr Bayrou's ideas on the fact that citizens are not kept sufficiently informed and mainly insisted on the importance of television for getting information across.
After the meeting, Messrs Prodi, Watson and Bayrou held a small working meeting during the evening, which allowed them to begin reflection on what could be the future programme of a Centrist and Liberal group, which would breath new life into a federal dynamic but also make political choices depending on the ballot result in June. The constitution of the new group should not come about before elections but the agreement on its formation and programme should be fixed beforehand. No date has yet been set for the official announcement of the constitution of the new centre party.
The movement begun by the convergence of Liberals, Centrists and Christian Democrats displeased by the EPP's Conservative slide seems to have gained in magnitude over recent days, first of all within the EPP itself but also elsewhere. The regionalist elected members could, for example, join this new centrist family. The shock wave seems to have been sufficiently serious to provoke a reaction from the president of the EPP party (see below) and entail a likely postponement till 31 March of adoption of the modification of the group's statute initially foreseen for 10 March.