Brussels, 22/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - As already reported, in Vienna on 19 December, the Presidents of the European Parliament's political groups held a discussion with Austrian school students on European current events ahead of the upcoming Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 9093). On the European Constitution, the students were met with disagreement from the MEPs. The President of the Independence and Democracy group, Jens-Peter Bonde (Denmark), said it was delighted the French and Dutch voted not to a Constitution that would, he said, create a superstate in Europe. The President pf the EPP-ED group, Hans-Gert Pottering said that wasn't true and everyone wanted to keep the different identities found in Europe. Pottering suggested waiting for the May 2007 elections to learn what French people wanted with respect to the Constitution. Bonde, who spoke in German during the debate, against suggested that Yes and No vote supporters should come together and hold a directly elected Convention to discuss a new Constitution and then hold a referendum on the same day throughout the EU. Fervent pro-European, the Co-President of the Greens/EFA group, Monica Frassoni (Italy), who also spoke in German, said she didn't oppose Bonde's idea. Frassoni said it was time to take new initiatives on the Constitution but they should start at the European Parliament. The President of the United European Left/Nordic Green Left group, Francis Wurtz (France), speaking in German, said the had actively campaigned for a no vote in France, explaining that the French people who voted no did not oppose the EU and a good European Constitution was possible if European policy changed direction. Wurtz called in this connection for the Austrian Presidency to dump the services directive. On the work of the Austrian Presidency, the President of the ALDE group, Graham Watson (UK), speaking in German, said Lord Carrington had told Jose Manuel Barroso that he main problem he would face would come from France and the UK, and he had been right because both France and the UK are living in the past. On enlargement and the EU's borders, Pottering said in response to question about Kazakhstan that Ukraine was a European country but if people wanted Kazakhstan to join the EU, that would mean they wanted a totally different EU. Brian Crowley, President of the UEN group (of Irish nationality), said that the prospect of being able to join the EU had had a stabilising impact in the Balkans.
Asked what the EU could do to ensure human rights and the environment were respected around the world in countries it has agreements with, Frassoni said something could be done, of course, but did the EU really want to? The President of the Socialist group, Martin Schulz (Germany), said there was the danger that taking sanctions against a country that didn't respect human rights and environment rules would hit ordinary people, who were already oppressed and would get even poorer. Schulz said it would be better to first try to get transformation through closer links, quoting former German Chancellor Willy Brandt's words on his Ostpolitik vis-à-vis Communist regimes in central and Eastern Europe before the Berlin Wall came down.
Various Austrian school students raised the problem of overcrowding at universities in Austria because of large number of Germans escaping quotas at home. Bonde said each country was responsible for deciding whether or not to admit foreigners to their universities, pointing out that the Danish system has one of the highest grants (more than EUR 600 a month) but if there were more students applying, the grant would have to be cut. Pottering said he opposed the idea of barriers within the EU and Bonde's remarks were populism, while Philip Claeys, Belgian National Front MEP (far right), said Member States should be able to restrict numbers, explaining that in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), there were a lot of Dutch students.