January 16, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 12, 1423

PARIS, Jan 15: President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany decided on Tuesday night to propose to their European partners that the EU give itself a two-headed executive, made up of a president of the European Commission, to be elected by the European Parliament, and another of the European Council, who would be named by the Council’s other members.

Details of the proposal will be formally presented next on Jan 22 at Versailles, as legislators from the two countries’ parliaments make their way there to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of the Elysee Palace, which marked the start of reconciliation between France and Germany after the World War.

The proposal will also be presented to Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a former French president, who presently heads a constitutional convention that is writing a new constitutional charter for the EU, largely to allow it to function smoothly when it has 25 members in two years’ time.

The Franco-German proposition marks a compromise between divergent points of view originally espoused by Messrs Chirac and Schroeder.

The German chancellor would have preferred an executive that would have reinforced the role played by the European Commission, according to a federalist model somewhat akin to the governmental structure of Germany, whereas the French head of state favoured a stronger central form of government - like the highly-centralized French model.

Aencies add: The call by France and Germany for a dual presidency has stirred unease among supporters of closer EU integration and sparked gloomy predictions of institutional rivalry.

But champions of the nation state including Britain welcomed the proposal from the EU’s two pivotal members, which envisages the creation of a powerful new president of the European Council that groups the 15 national governments.