With a view to the Summit on 15 and 16 June, a number of Heads of Government as well as the President of the European Commission have prepared in advance their views on putting the constitutional project back on track and on the related period of reflection. These stances come in addition to the provisional conclusions reached by the Foreign Ministers at their preparatory meeting in Vienna (see yesterday's column).
- Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel reasserted that her country is keen to have the constitutional treaty, which is absolutely necessary to give Europe the ability to act. If nothing can be done before, the German EU Presidency will take the initiative to get things moving during the first half of 2007.
- Although the new Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, had stressed during his visit to Brussels that his top priority was to firmly establish his country's traditional pro-European policy direction, he was pragmatic about the strategy that should be followed. He said that, if one is realistic, one is forced to admit that the French and the Dutch will never vote in favour of the text that they rejected in referendum. The draft should therefore be adjusted while safeguarding the main institutional advances as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights. He also considers the addition of a social protocol would give constitutional value to the European social model. All Europeans should be consulted in June 2009, at the same time as the European elections, on a founding text for a “political” Union. Mr Prodi rejects all separation between old and new Member States but considers that the States will be “more or less committed on the road to integration”. The move forward towards common objectives may therefore be made “at differentiated pace or intensity, according to the situation and national choice”.
- The Dutch Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, confirmed before his national parliament that he would not submit the draft constitutional treaty to the approval of the people a second time, but also that he was not against institutional changes within the EU as of 2008, concerning in particular reform of the Commission (as provided for in the Nice Treaty currently in force).
- According to Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the permanent president of the Euro Group, without the constitutional treaty the EU would very gradually and imperceptibly become an area of free trade. Institutional construction, however, will not be sufficient. The treaty should also have a social dimension, a minimum base of workers' rights. This must be achieved within the next ten years. Mr Juncker went on to confirm his distrust regarding the hypothesis of “a core group of States” that would form a pioneer group or vanguard (see our bulletin No. 9200).
- The President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, called for reality to be taken into account, saying that adoption of a European Constitution is impossible at the present time. This is a “political reality” that must be observed. He therefore vigorously defends the need to avoid all paralysis firstly by seeking concrete results and by strengthening Europe's economic performance, which would then facilitate a consensus on institutional changes. Immediate results must therefore be sought while safeguarding the constitutional project, an approach that he defined as a “step by step approach to the service of a political vocation”.
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, who is to preside the June summit, had recommended speeding up the timetable to reach a definitive decision on the constitutional treaty in 2007 or, at the very latest, early 2008 - but he had done so before the ministerial meting in Vienna.
To these stances expressed in different contexts (press articles, interviews, speeches) must be added the intervention by the Belgian Prime Minister before the European Parliament - the sole position taken in a Community institutional context. Guy Verhofstadt confirmed his federal approach and his scepticism about the possibility of moving forward with all 25 members along the lines that he would advocate (see our bulletin of yesterday). Furthermore, perplexity over unanimous participation (mainly by Great Britain) in putting the constitutional project back on track were also expressed by other personalities.
I shall end this overview tomorrow with a number of indications on the participation of the civil society, an important element as all the institutions consider such participation is fundamental and innovative for the period of reflection.
(F.R.)
European Parliament Plenary Session