Brussels, 02/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The second idea is often better than the first, both in public and private life, said Andrew Duff, British Liberal Democrat MEP and co-rapporteur with Johannes Vogenhuber on the follow-up to the Constitutional Treaty, speaking at the Summer University in Santander (Spain). Several scenarios of how to prevent the Treaty being forgotten about were discussed in Santander. It looks unlikely politically that the countries that have rejected the Constitution will be called up to re-vote, in the near future at least, the idea of making a few changes through institutional agreements (without amending the Treaties) looks like it might rest on shaky legal ground. The idea of dropping the idea of unanimous ratification, discussed and rejected by the European Convention, is unlikely to be up for grabs, while a compromise suiting all 25 Member States would be hard to reach during a standard intergovernmental conference. What remains is the total re-negotiation of the existing text, while both preserving the progress made in the text and attempting to take into account criticism voiced during the referendum campaigns. Asked about this option, Duff said it was important not to underestimate the problems and frustration of countries that have come out in favour of the text, with regard to the idea of starting negotiations from scratch. In the event it has to be re-negotiated, Andrew Duff said he would like new sections from the CFSP chapter to be retains, describing them as 'good' and as deserving to be kept in exactly the same format as now.
European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said he was not sure re-negotiating was a priority in the current period. While in Santander, Barrot told Europe about his personal views, calling for pragmatism and remembering the detailed work the Convention had to do to strike compromise, probably a modest compromise. Barrot said it would probably be easier to get some improvements in the way the institutions operate (extending qualified majority voting and co-decision, for example) when Europeans feel better in themselves. For this reasons, the priority has to be a more active implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, which depends solely on the good-will of governments, he added.
The President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, said he too was not at all convinced it would be appropriate to renegotiate, since there are no strident demands for renegotiating the Constitution from either France or the Netherlands. Borrell said this reflection time had to be used to agree on guidelines on what citizens desire, while considering the best way of achieving this.