Brussels, 23/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - Foreign Affairs ministers from the EU27 launched an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on Monday in Brussels. The IGC will have to finalise and adopt the text for the Union's “Reform Treaty”, on the basis of the negotiations mandate that leaders approved at last June's European Council. The IGC brings together representatives from member states, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso and three representatives from the European Parliament: Elmar Brok (EPP-ED), Enrique Baron Crespo (PES) and Andrew Duff (ALDE). The president of the EP, Hans-Gert Pöttering will be able to attend IGC meetings at a Heads of State and governments level.
The Portuguese presidency aims to conclude negotiations at the informal European Council on 18/19 October in Lisbon and begin the ratification process before the end of this year so that the new treaty can enter into force before the European elections of June 2009.
On Monday, a month after the painful agreement reached between Heads of State and governments on the negotiations mandate on 23 June, the Portuguese presidency distributed member states with the first draft of the treaty text, more than 200 pages of the treaty and protocols, on which legal experts from the member states will begin to examine on Tuesday and Wednesday, while awaiting more detailed discussions at the end of August. A first exchange of political views is programmed for the informal foreign affairs ministers meeting (“Gymnich”) on 8/9 September near Porto. Even if most of the IGC work will be done by a group of legal experts, the Portuguese presidency wants it to be open and transparent. Mr Amado explained, “this is a process where those addressed are not just member states and institutions but also our citizens”. For this reason, all documents from this conference will be made public (the draft treaty distributed on Monday to ministers is already available on the website of the Portuguese presidency: http://www.eu2007.pt ).
The mandate and nothing but the mandate. During the brief IGC opening session, the Portuguese foreign affairs minister and current president of the Council of the EU, Luis Amado insisted to his colleagues that the presidency would lead this IGC, “in the strictest respect of the mandate received”, which is “the basis and exclusive framework for the work of the IGC”. Amado added that, “we will not stray even a millimetre from this mandate”. In connection with Poland, which over recent weeks had announced that it was going to request precision on certain aspects, notably the famous “Ioannina compromise” (mechanism allowing for a group of member countries to get the decisions that they just missed out on getting the minority bloc at the Council) which is part of the consensus process on double majority for qualified majority voting at the Council. Although the Kaczynski brothers say that they had obtained an “oral commitment” at the June summit in which the “unreasonable deadline” mentioned in the Ioannina compromise would be two years (during which the search for a compromise would continue), other member states believe that this deadline cannot not go beyond three or four months if they wanted to avoid blocking the decision making for too long.
Poland looking conciliatory. On Monday, the Polish minister of foreign affairs, Anna Fytoga asked only for “clarifications” about the “unreasonable deadline” mentioned in the Ioannina compromise, without, however, calling for any real opening up of negotiations on this aspect. It would also appear that she launched the idea of being able to invoke the Ioannina compromise on two consecutive occasions on the same subject. She said that Poland was optimistic and “did not have a problem with the treaty. We simply want to clarify certain things, like other countries do”.
Luis Amado described the Polish intervention on Monday as “constructive and positive”. Amado said that he was willing to tackle the Polish request at a technical level, as well as other requests for clarification, which could possible come from other member states. However, he did repeat that there was no way they would go back on the mandate approved on 23 June. Speaking to the press Amado said, “at this stage it is too early to say whether the Polish request for clarification will become a political issue” because this depended on the result of technical and legal discussions over the next few days and weeks. Anne Fotyga also pointed out on Monday that in keeping with the 23 June mandate, Poland would retain the possibility of not applying the Charter of Fundamental Rights, just as the United Kingdom is doing.
Satisfaction from Mr Barroso and European Parliament. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, speaking to press, welcomed the launch of the IGC, which will bring the inter-institutional debate in the EU to an end (“That's enough,” he said) and would allow there to be concentration on the “Europe of results”. President Hans-Gert Pötering also welcomed the opening of the IGC and assured the Portuguese presidency of the EP's “full support”. Mr Pöttering stressed that “there can be no renegotiation” of the mandate approved in June. On this basis, “the new Treaty will make the European Union, and thereby democracy in Europe, decisively stronger,” he said, adding that “European citizens and their directly elected Parliament can, therefore, be seen as the winners”. British MEP Andrew Duff, an IGC member, said it was essential that the mandate now be transformed into a proper Reform Treaty, “that can be brought into force as soon as possible”. “Having debated and negotiated these constitutional matters since the Declaration of Laeken in 2001 there can be no excuse now for further delay or backtracking. Europe urgently needs a better system of government and a greater capacity to act at home and abroad,” he said in a press release. He went on, “The Reform Treaty will be based on the best features of its constitutional predecessor, and will include some real improvements notably with respect to the energy, environmental and enlargement policies of the Union”. Chairman of the EP constitutional affairs committee Jo Leinen also pressed for the timetable to be adhered to: “Until the EU summit on 18-19 October in Lisbon, a consensus has to be found”. He also warned Warsaw: “Poland has already achieved a postponement by 10 years for the new voting rules in the Council of Ministers. No further dice. The aim of the Reform Treaty is to improve the EU's ability to act, not its ability for blockade”. (hb)