Brussels, 24/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - The Austrian presidency of the EU Council trusts that the European Council on 15 and 16 June will decide on an ambitious timetable - more ambitious than that suggested by the European Commission - in order to put the draft constitutional Treaty back on track, with view to it taking effect in 2009 at the same time as the next European Parliament and the next European Commission take up office. “It would be wise to come to a final decision on the text (of the future European Constitution) during 2007 or, at the latest, early 2008”, the Austrian Chancellor and current President of the European Council, Wolfgang Schüssel, said during an interview with FT Deutschland on 24 May. “Our aim should be to ensure that the constitutional treaty can take effect in parallel with the new European Parliament (Ed.: to be elected in June 2009) and the new European Commission (Ed.: the Barroso Commission's mandate is to expire in November 2009).
In its recent communication on the future of Europe, the European Commission had stated that revision of the financial perspectives for 2007-2013, scheduled for 2008-2009, should be a key moment for redefining the EU's political priorities, thus creating a base for a solution to the EU's constitutional problem (see EUROPE 9189). According to this scenario, ratification of the new treaty could under no circumstances be completed in 2009, as the Austrian Presidency had hoped. Chancellor Schüssel states, on the other hand, that he is opposed to the idea of linking revision of the financial perspectives to the constitutional question. “These are two different things and should be dealt with separately. Otherwise, everything becomes too complicated, too complex. I also hope that we shall be able to move forward on the Constitution earlier (than revision of the budget)”, he said. In Mr Schüssel's opinion, the current text must also remain the base for future work on the Constitution as “we do not have a better text, and it will be difficult to find another”.