0
BRUSSELS, Jan 20: A Franco-German proposal for a double-headed presidency of the European Union came under heavy fire on Monday from supporters of closer integration, who say the plan by the EU’s pivotal duo is unworkable and undemocratic.
The proposal is an attempt to bridge Germany’s integrationist views with the “Europe of nations” model favoured by France. It calls for a long-term, full-time president of the European Council of national governments.
This leader would chair EU summits and represent the Union on the world stage.
But the plan would also bolster the European Commission, the EU’s supranational executive, by having its president elected directly by the European Parliament. This would give him more democratic legitimacy and enhance his political clout.
The proposal dominated debate at a two-day session of the Convention on the Future of Europe, a 105-member forum headed by ex-French president Valery Giscard D’Estaing, which is drawing up a constitution for an enlarged EU of nearly 30 members.
Speakers from the Commission, smaller member states and some of the 10 countries set to join the bloc next year argued against a long-term Council president, who under the plan would be chosen by EU leaders for a stint of up to five years.
“Such a president would inevitably encroach on the powers of the Commission. The result would be confusion, acrimony and stalemate,” said Dutch government delegate Gijs De Vries.
The Commission upholds the common EU interest and also the principle of equality among all member states.
FEAR OF BIG STATES: The Benelux countries — the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg — issued a joint statement calling for retention of the current system whereby the Council presidency rotates among member states, giving each a turn at the helm.
France, strongly backed by other champions of the nation state such as Britain and Spain, say the rotating presidency robs the EU of strong leadership and continuity of policy.
In an enlarged EU, each country would hold the chair for six months every 12-1/2 years.
The smaller nations fear a full-time Council president would be under the thumb of France, Germany and the other big countries.
“We do not want a system that is prone to manipulation by the bigger countries,” Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen told reporters in Helsinki.
The smaller nations and the Commission also argue that a full-time Council president would require a new and costly bureaucracy and prove confusing to both Europeans and the outside world.
“Two competing, parallel executives would have neither transparency nor accountability. A split between an executive of “grown-up” people and an executive of “kids” would not improve our capacity to steer or our capacity to deliver,” said Antonio Vitorino, European commissioner for justice and home affairs.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, a vice-chairman of the Convention, said he would prefer a single president for both the Commission and Council, but conceded this was probably too bold a step towards a federal Europe.
DISSENT: Most speakers in the Convention broadly backed the Franco-German call for a single EU “foreign minister”, who would combine the powers currently shared between Javier Solana, who reports to the member states, and the Commission’s Chris Patten.
They also supported the election of the Commission president by parliament.
Britain’s government delegate to the Convention, Peter Hain, welcomed the Franco-German proposals but voiced misgivings about electing the Commission chief, although he did not rule it out.
“We should take care not to threaten the independence of the Commission. The Commission may be a political body, but it must not be allowed to become a partisan one,” Hain told delegates.—Reuters
