Strasburg, 11/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the new president-in-office of the European Council, José Socrates, who had gone to Strasbourg to present the work programme and priorities of the Portuguese EU presidency (published in our series EUROPE/Documents No2466 of 5 July), was greeted in a consensual and largely positive way by the European Parliament. “The success of a presidency depends clearly on the clarity of its programme. Our priorities have been defined: the reform of the treaties; an agenda for modernising European economies and societies, and the strengthening of Europe's role in the world”, the Portuguese prime minister summarised. A very large majority of MEPs support these priorities: finalisation of the new treaty, “revitalisation” of the Lisbon strategy, and strengthened relations with Africa and Latin America. Nonetheless, slight differences did appear during the debate, for example on the Lisbon strategy, for which several MEPs would like the social dimension to be consolidated. Martin Schulz of Germany, who heads the Socialist Group, felt for example that reactivating the strategy without giving citizens social security would be nonsensical. Ilda Figuereido of Portugal (GUE/NGL) went further by deploying the “last chance” of tackling “real socio-economic problems”, such as inequality, poverty and the precarious situation of small wage earners and the retired. Although bringing Africa back on the European agenda was welcomed by all (an EU/Africa summit will be held in December, the first for many years), many MEPs call on the presidency to ensure that the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, will not be invited.
The main challenge of the presidency's term of office is, of course, that of successfully concluding the intergovernmental conference (IGC) on reform of the treaties (see related article above), explained Mr Socrates, stressing - with the support of Commission President José Manuel Barroso and almost all the MEPs who took part in the debate - that the negotiating mandate approved by the June European Council should be scrupulously complied with. “We have a clear and precise mandate. Our task is not to amend the mandate, but to transform the mandate into a treaty”, he said. On 23 July, during the opening of the IGC (on the sidelines of the General Affairs Council), the presidency will be distributing a draft treaty developed on the basis of the mandate, Mr Socrates announced. During the same week, it will convene meetings of legal experts to analyse the text and determine any difficulties. The informal meeting of foreign ministers on 7-8 September will take stock of progress made in the work. “Our intention is to work actively with a view to reaching an agreement on the treaty during the informal European Council on 18-19 October, in Lisbon”, he said. Mr Socrates pointed out that the EP will have three representatives at the IGC (Elmar Brok, Enrique Baron Crespo and Andrew Duff), and suggested that the Parliament should be represented by its president during each sitting of the IGC at the level of the heads of state and government. (hb)