[A-List] EU: internal struggles

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Business chiefs seek stronger EU executive
By Paul Betts in Paris
Financial Times: June 26 2002

Leading European industrialists on Tuesday added their influential voice
to the growing battle over who should run the European Union by calling
for a reinforcement of the powers of the Commission.

The European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) told members of the
convention on the future of Europe, including its head, former French
president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, that a stronger Commission was
"vital" if Europe was to be more competitive.

Grouping the heads of 44 of Europe's largest industrial groups and
multinationals, the ERT told the convention that the Commission was "the
genuinely Europe-focused institution and the one most capable of
articulating the common European interest above national and regional
interests".

It also argued the Commission would be stronger if it were to become
more focused, concentrating on its core economic business.

Business leaders, ranging from the heads of British Petroleum and Royal
Dutch Shell to Siemens, Unilever, Saint-Gobain, Thyssen-Krupp, Vodafone,
Nestlé, Nokia and Investor, were also worried by the erosion of the
Commission's powers in economic affairs by transferring them to EU
member states or to a system of "shared responsibility".

This complicated and slowed down decision-making, reduced transparency
and seriously risked handicapping the ability of European business to
compete in international markets.

By throwing its weight behind the Commission, the ERT is siding with
smaller EU countries, which believe their interests would be best served
by a strong Commission. In contrast, larger countries such as Britain
and France want the powers of the EU Council of Ministers strengthened.

Business leaders also want the powers of the Commission president
reinforced to give him greater influence in selecting commissioners and
managing the college of commissioners. To enhance his authority, the
president would have to be nominated by a more direct and democratic
system.

Morris Tabaksblat, chairman of Reed Elsevier, the Anglo-Dutch publishing
group, and head of the ERT working group on the governance of Europe,
said enlargement raised concerns over the size of the Commission. A
college of 27 commissioners could result in even more cumbersome
decision-making and infighting. The proposal of Romano Prodi, the
Commission president, to create an inner cabinet made sense.

Mr Tabaksblat, also a former chairman of Unilever, said ERT members felt
the Commission had done a "good job" in getting the single market on its
feet and introducing the euro. But its role was "slipping". Europe was
failing to deliver a Community patent, a takeover directive, and the
commitment made at the Lisbon summit two years ago to make Europe "the
most competitive knowledge-based society" by 2010.

"The vision of Lisbon is now slipping as fast as it was decided and the
commitment is no longer there. That is the most worrying part of the
problem," he said.