May 28, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25,1424

BRUSSELS, May 27: Supporters of closer European integration angrily accused big states on Tuesday of hijacking the forum drafting an EU constitution to boost their own powers.

The Convention on the Future of Europe is racing to complete its draft in time for a summit of EU leaders in Greece on June 20-21, but divisions remain deep over how to distribute power in a Union due to expand from 15 to 25 members next year.

“We get the impression we are constantly tilting at windmills,” said Elmar Brok, a senior member of the European Parliament and of the 105-member Convention, which is due to debate the latest draft text on Friday and Saturday.

“This is not acceptable to small member states. Do we want a directorate in Europe where the big six states decide everything? If so, it will be the end of the European Union,” the German Christian Democrat MEP told a news conference.

He accused the steering presidium headed by former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing of riding roughshod over the views of Convention members and of smaller EU member states.

The presidium proposes creating a long-term president of the European Council, the supreme EU body grouping national leaders. At present, the EU presidency rotates among all member states, irrespective of size, every six months.

The “big six” — Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Poland — back the reform, saying it will bring greater focus.

The draft would also cap the size of the European Commission, the EU executive supposed to uphold the supranational EU interest, at 15 full members. This is anathema to small states, which insist on having their own Commission members in Brussels.

Brok said the proposals would reduce the Commission to “a machine for making the single market run” and the European Parliament to a rubber stamp, while real power would lie with the national governments in the Council.

He accused Giscard and the presidium of ignoring the 1,500 amendments tabled by members of the Convention for the key draft articles on institutions and foreign policy.

Another senior MEP, British Liberal Democrat Graham Watson, said Giscard had done a good job of simplifying EU treaties in the new draft, but added: “It is disappointing... big countries are seeking to unpick the seams (of close EU cooperation).”

From the eurosceptical camp, however, Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde accused Giscard of trying to erect an EU “superstate”.

“This draft constitution aims at total centralisation in Brussels,” he said.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, who as current EU president will host next month’s summit, threw his weight behind a stronger Commission and more qualified majority voting.

“I believe we need to complete reforming Europe to strengthen its federal characteristics,” he said in Athens.

The presidium draft text includes the creation of a new foreign minister who would sit in the Commission but be appointed by and report mainly to national governments.

In a further setback for integrationists, sources said the latest draft — due to be published later on Tuesday — would reinstate the right of national veto on foreign policy proposals made jointly by the new foreign minister and the Commission.

An earlier version would have allowed EU governments to decide by qualified majority vote to endorse such proposals.

Britain, France and Sweden have been most opposed to any weakening of the national veto in foreign affairs.

EU leaders will have the final say on the constitutional text at a conference due to start in Italy in October. —Reuters