Brussels, 10/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 9 May, in a press release put out on the occasion of Europe Day, the president of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, René van der Linden, appealed in favour of strengthening European ideals and values, which are essential if Europe is to be stable, safe and prosperous. In his view, the challenges facing us today, such as globalisation, energy supply security, the need for intercultural dialogue and inter-dependency, require a real partnership, not just within the EU but on the scale of the European continent as a whole. In this vein, the president of the Assembly again welcomed the series of proposals made last month by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker with a view to strengthening the partnership between the two European organisations, and above all the suggestion that the European Union should become a member of the Council of Europe by 2010. Speaking on the phone, René van der Linden explained that he was not pleased with the proposal made by the Romanian presidency of the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe with a view to adopting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) organising relations between the Twenty-Five and the Forty-Six. He went on to explain that this last proposal is not acceptable to the Assembly, mainly because it does not take into account the parliamentary dimension of the EU-Council of Europe relationship (President van der Linden stresses that “cooperation with the European Parliament is growing stronger”. He cited recent participation by MEPs Elmar Brok and Joseph Daul in the work of the Assembly). The Romanian proposal does not guarantee effective use of the instruments and expertise of the Council of Europe by the European Union either. The philosophy behind it corresponds to a sort of instrument-sharing between the two organisations, with the Council of Europe maintaining its pre-eminence when it comes to democracy, human rights and rule of law, René van der Linden said. He went on to add that it would not be possible to finalise the dossier under Romanian presidency and that it will therefore be up to the next Russian presidency to make a new proposal with the participation of the Parliamentary Assembly.
With its entry into the European Union just a few months away, it was a point of honour for Romania to finalise MoU negotiations before the end of its presidency next week. Slowed down by the arrival of the Juncker report and by the fact that the Assembly and several countries were adamant about taking into account the recommendations made by the Luxembourg prime minister just before Easter (EUROPE 9172), the Romanian presidency has since hastened to present a new text, putting aside most of the recommendations of the Juncker report referred back to a long-term follow-up committee for scrutiny. This strategy could have had results if the new Romanian proposal, drafted in Bucharest, had not erred on the side of zealousness. The result of this new draft was, as one diplomat said: “catastrophic, unreadable, with a large number of bombastic formula and repetition and a lack of any precise commitment even where it was possible to show commitment”. This was to such an extent that even the EU (and the Commission) through the intermediary of its Member States were obliged to put forward amendments, to which were added those of non-EU countries and a counter-proposal from Russia largely based on the Juncker report and the Parliamentary Assembly. Since 4 May, therefore, there has been deadlock and this is expected to remain until the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 18 and 19 May, when the matter will be passed on to Russia.