Brussels, 04/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker asserted that it would be possible to get out of the impasse over the European constitution by agreeing to weighing votes at the Council in the way the Treaty of Nice had set out up to 2014, provided that a date is set in the constitution for the entry into force of the system of double majority. During a meeting on 27 February in Paris with the Delegation to the European Union (president by Pierre Lequiller) and the foreign affairs committee (presided by Eduoard Balladur) from the National Assembly, Juncker said that he thought that they gave too much importance to this issue, whereas there were other essential subjects, like the extension of qualified majority voting. According to a report by the Delegation of the National Assembly, Elisabeth Guigou MP (former European affairs minister and former MEP) declared that some steps in Spain' direction on the issue of majority at the Council would be welcome, provided that the principle of double majority is not threatened and that weighing votes is done reasonably.
On the subject of the "hardcore", Juncker considered that the best core would be that of 25; in certain cases pioneer groups would be necessary, he admitted, but warned the countries concerned to not create the impression to the other countries that you've just been waiting for this occasion. Juncker believes that the inconvenient aspect regarding pioneer groups would be that they bring together the same countries on the same subjects, which makes the vision of Europe less clear. Guigou (who negotiated the Treaty of Maastricht when she was a minister) pointed out that monetary union was not in the beginning an idea of an avant-guard. It was only when at the European Council of Maastricht, that divergences became insurmountable that Member States in favour of the Euro called on their adversaries of the project to not hold it up.
On the subject of Turkey's accession to the EU, Juncker illustrated that they could not make a commitment to a Europe in this direction without the support of the public. He also pointed out that he had himself proposed in 1997 the possibility, as an alternative of a "super partnership" with Ankara.
Mr Juncker said that included in the challenges for the Luxembourg presidency in the first six months of 2005, were financial perspectives (they should not put themselves in "a cage of 1%") and reform of the stability pact (which deserves some revision by taking into account elements that had not been thought about in the beginning).