Brussels, 02/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament will take stock of the informal Summit of Hampton Court in Strasbourg on Wednesday 16 November (after a pre-Summit debate, at which Tony Blair was welcomed generally positively, but without winning everybody over and without raising the enthusiasm which marked his speech to the Parliament last June: see EUROPE 9057 and 8976 and, in this bulletin, the article on the reactions of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker). In the meantime, certain MEPs have decided to react in writing, some of them in fairly colourful language.
In a Letter of Information sent by the UDF MEPs to the European Parliament, Marielle de Sarnez (ALDE, France), states the view that the informal summit "confirmed that the European Union is stuck in the mud". "There are some good ideas going around to turn European ambitions into reality" she said, referring to research, the energy policy and a future fund to help face the problem of to delocalisations, whilst adding: "but these proposals have a cost and require a budget". Ms de Sarnez therefore regrets the fact that the UK Presidency made no attempt, in Hampton Court, to "get its hands dirty to try to bring points of view (on the financial perspectives 2007-2013) closer together, rather than postponing a hypothetical compromise, which has almost no chance of coming through, to December".
Cautious rather than overtly critical, the president of the EPP-ED group, Hans -Gert Pöttering, has issued a press release in which he described the result of Hampton Court Summit as an "interim result". He acknowledges: "it will not be until the December Summit that the EU budget for the period 2007-2013 will be decided on, that we will be able to say whether we have succeeded in re-establishing the unity and confidence between the Heads of State and Government".
As for Friedrich Wilhlem Graefe zu Baringdorf, German Green, he said: "Tony Blair wants to abolish agricultural subsidies to save his British rebate and negotiations at the WTO. At the Summit, Jacques Chirac called for funds for research, which he wants to pay for with the British rebate. The President of the Commission Barroso wants a fund to pay for damages caused by globalisation". What a cacophony, the MEP notes, directing most of his disappointment at President Chirac, stating: "Chirac claims that he is defending the interests of farmers, but in reality, he is defending the old agricultural policy which is mainly of service to the interests of a food industry which is orientated towards export".