Brussels, 12/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The president of the EPP-ED group of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, has criticised the words of Dutch European Affairs Minister Bernard Bot, who said on Wednesday that the draft European Constitution was "dead" (EUROPE 9017). The CDU NEP also rejected recent proposals by Jacques Chirac to implement certain provisions of the Constitution, on the basis of current treaties and to create a "pioneer group" to take European integration forward. "I absolutely cannot understand Mr Bot's declaration", because his job as foreign affairs Minister for a country which rejected the text of the Constitution should, normally, be to propose solutions to break the deadlock, Mr Pöttering told the press on Thursday, whilst adding that on this point, he represented only the opinion of the "European People's Party" of his group on this subject, not that of the European Democrats.
As for the French President's suggestion to use some provisions extracted from the draft Constitution (particularly on foreign policy, internal security, justice and the participation of the national parliaments; see EUROPE 9106) to be applied immediately on the basis of the existing treaty, the EPP is strictly opposed to this. "We should not cut the text up into lots of bits and pieces, because we want parts I and II to remain the basis and the starting point for the reform of the European Union. We must stick with these two parts", and will see "later" what happens to part III, said Mr Pöttering. The constitutional debate should take the Constitution as its starting point and not the (Nice) treaty currently in force, stressed Mr Pöttering, who said that he was "confident" that this point of view (which is that of the EPP group at the EP) would also be the one retained by the Congress of the European People's Party, to be held in Rome on 30 and 31 March.
Nor does Mr Chirac's other proposal, that of bringing in a "pioneer group" to allow the most ambitious Member States to move forward in European construction without having to wait for the others, have the support of the EPP component, "because this would imply an inter-governmental nature, which we reject", explained Mr Pöttering. "Everything that we do must remain within a Community framework. The method must remain Community-based", whereas a vanguard would, by its very nature, be an inter-governmental initiative "which would run the risk of splitting the European Union up". It is not up to a few Member States to steer the EU and to take the lead in European integration, "but it is up to all the Member States, including the European Commission", to do this, he stressed.
Mr Pöttering also noted that when it comes to the forthcoming inter-institutional negotiations between the EP and the Council on the financial perspectives 2007-2013, the EPP-ED group will not accept the political agreement of the European Council of last December as it stands (see other article). "This is a starting point for the negotiations", but substantial improvements will be necessary. In particular, we will require: -more financial resources for Community policies such as culture, education and youth. The fact that these policies were neglected in December's political agreement (with their resources frozen or even reduced) is "unacceptable"; -a guarantee that the EP will be able to take on a full role in the mid-term revision of the EU budget in 2008/2009. In this context, Mr Pöttering welcomed the fact that the President of the European Council, the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, has spoken out in support of the principle of creating the EU's own source of funding, in the form of a European tax; -more flexibility in the field of exceptional (unforeseen) expenditure of the EU, "where the Council cannot act alone"; -improved management of Community expenditure within the Member States. The EPP-ED would, in particular, like the finance ministers of the Member States to be obliged to make public declarations guaranteeing that Community funding was used correctly in their countries, which would help to prevent the responsibility being lumped "onto Brussels" in cases of incorrect management within the Member States. It is important for the European Commission to play the role of an "honest mediator" in inter-institutional negotiations between the EP and the Council, even though the Commission in charge of the dossier, Dalia Grybauskaite, "has still not shown a positive attitude towards the European Parliament, including in her personal behaviour", commented Mr Pöttering.