Brussels, 24/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - An apparently optimistic Brian Cowen met the press on Monday evening with the results of the IGC ministerial meeting on the Constitution. The atmosphere was good and constructive, he said. A great deal was said on the question of "flexibility" and "the chances of reaching a consensus on defining qualified majority are broadening" although all parties have still to make a move. Even if the issue of double majority in Council is unlikely to be resolved by the summit on 17/18 June, it was important to have this new ministerial meeting to hear everyone's points of view as, Mr Cowen stressed, "that, too, is the Community method". The next ministerial IGC is scheduled for 14 June. On Monday, ministers mainly discussed the following issues:
a) Definition of qualified majority. In a brief working note addressed to Member States, the Irish Presidency states that, as far as the definition of double majority in Council is concerned, bilateral contacts over recent weeks have shown that the Convention proposal (50% States and 60% population) was not sufficiently backed and that "consensus will not be secured without raising the population threshold". Poland and Spain continue to call for a bigger increase in the threshold. Madrid, for example, reiterated on Monday that it wished a threshold of 66.66% (2/3) (the threshold for Member States seems to be less important for Spain). The Polish position was not very clear on Monday. On one hand, it was displeased with the thresholds proposed by the Convention, but did not specify what percentages it would find acceptable. The Irish Presidency did not give any figures for its proposals. On the other hand, countries in favour of the 50%/60% model (mainly France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom) restated that it would be necessary to keep to the Convention proposal "or a solution very similar to the Convention model" in order to attain the final goal of transparency and increased effectiveness of the enlarged Union's decision-making process. Monday's discussions also confirmed that an impressive number of delegations - Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Austria - prefer parity in thresholds relating to population and States or, at least, to reduce the gap between the two. The Presidency seems to support this approach. In its working note, it concludes that, if the threshold for the population were to increase, that for Member States should also increase with a view to ensuring, at least, that the gap between the two does not get any bigger than that proposed by the Convention (Ed.: 10%).
The presidency considers that other possible refinements could be envisaged without compromising the effectiveness of the Council's decision making. On Monday the presidency also brought up the possibility of introducing changes to the way in which abstentions are counted during votes at the Council. In practice, abstention by a Member State does not influence the number of votes needed for adopting a decision. The presidency notes that, "this means in practice that abstentions have a similar effect to those of no votes. A possibility remains of examining whether this provision could be amended so that abstentions were not interpreted as no or yes votes…this could ensure greater effectiveness in the decision making procedure". The presidency's suggestion was not sufficiently exhaustive for getting a conclusion at this stage, explained diplomats. The note also alluded to "interesting suggestions" on the definition and implementation of minority blocking methods.
b) Treaty preamble and reference to Christianity. The polemic on this issue resurfaced on Friday when seven Member States: Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Portugal, Czech Republic and Malta sent a common letter to the Irish presidency, requesting the inclusion of the Christian tradition in the preamble. The Polish foreign affairs minister Boguslaw Majewski declared in Wars< that the list of letter signatories was not exhaustive and said that they were hoping other countries would join the initiative. On Monday, the seven signatories reiterated their appeal, underlining that their approach was not inspired by religious motives but by historic reasons. The group of countries strongly opposed to any change in the preamble proposed by the Convention, however, remains very strong: France, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, United Kingdom and Slovenia. Other such as Germany and Austria are said to be open about i.
c) number of seats at European Parliament. Mr Cowen mentioned a general agreement for "modestly" increasing the minimum number of seats (four currently to five according to diplomats), although certain small countries still want to go up to six.
d) budgetary procedure. Mr Cowen told the press that there was a general welcome for the new presidency proposal, according to which the Council and the Parliament could decide together on the budget within a structure of conciliatory procedures with a 21 day deadline, if not forthcoming the Commission would have to submit another proposal.