PARIS, May 20: In a little noticed, but major, decision handed down at Strasbourg, the European Parliament has decided with an overwhelming majority (322 for, 64 against, with 58 abstentions) that it wants in the future for the European Union to take over the functions of diplomacy and defence — presently reserved to the respective member states of the EU.

At present, the EU in Brussels is in charge of the common currency (the euro) of the member states of the European Union, as well as the EU’s commercial relations with the outside world, not to speak of the internal functioning of its domestic market.

With the transfer of the new functions, the EU would be henceforth in charge of such functions as the elaboration and execution of a common foreign and defence policy, but also the internal security of the member nations and such important questions as immigration policy.

For the moment, such functions are shared with the member states, with the individual nations retaining an important degree of autonomy and control, notably with regard to defence and foreign policy.

It’s in large part because of the control by the member states over such sectors as diplomacy and defence that the EU has been largely unable in recent weeks to speak with one voice on such urgent problems as peace in the Middle East.

Indeed, says a source at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, it was largely the realization that Europe had its hands tied with regard to what was happening in the Palestinian territories.

According to French Euro-deputy Alain Lamassoure, one of the principal figures behind the proposal, the resolution will now go to the Convention that under former French head of state Valery Giscard d’Estaing is in the process of defining the way that the EU is to function once it expands in two years’ time to 25 members.

Says Lamassoure, who notes he was surprised by the overwhelming support received by the measure, “given the important majority that voted for the resolution, I can’t conceive of any way that the Convention — which must hand down its report by next year — can refuse to incorporate our desire in its final report.”

Also, he noted, the resolution passed “without a single amendment being appended,” quite a feat, he adds, at a time when Eurodeputies have a proclivity for amending their texts in such a way that often they lose all of their force, if not their clout.

According to the text of the resolution as authored by Lamassoure, himself a former French minister of European Relations, the present way that diplomacy is handled is “very complex” and then diplomats, who are themselves characterized as “complex,” tend too much to seek compromise.