Brussels, 08/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, is afraid that the entry into force of the new treaty will mean member states being tempted to resolve European problems between themselves in the future, and by-passing the Community institutions. In an interview on 6 October with the Belgian newspaper, De Standaard, Barroso explained that “the new treaty includes major risks to the future of the Commission and European Parliament” insofar as the stable presidency of the European Council, which replaces the rotating half-yearly presidency, could lead to the creation of a “new circuit, in parallel to the Commission and Parliament”. Mr Barroso emphasises that “there is a real danger of seeing governments settling problems among themselves, without taking into account the Community institutions…After the entry into force of the new treaty, we will have to be permanently vigilant to ensure that the new provisions (in the treaty) are not by-passed and the power of the Community institutions reduced”.
The Commission president also harshly criticised Germany, which he suspects of instrumentalising the subsidiarity principle to weaken the Community institutions. In the same interview he affirms: “I am not opposed to the German appeal to leave competences as close to the citizens as possible but this is in fact directed against the European institutions”. Barroso also mentioned “certain contradictions” in Germany's European policy and cited Germany's refusal to fund the Galileo project out of the Community budget, as well as Berlin's opposition to some of the aspects in the Commission proposed energy packet. Mr Barroso said that Berlin's attitude in these two dossiers is worrying and added: “I hope Germany does not lose the European impetus it had during its presidency of the EU during the first half of this year”. (hb)