[A-List] EU integration struggles: British initiative

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

Britain draws up plans for powerful EU presidency
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
The Independent, 04 October 2002

Plans for a powerful new president of Europe, chosen from the ranks of
current or past premiers, are to be fleshed out in a draft constitution
for the EU, commissioned by the Foreign Office.

The document, being drawn up by an academic whose work is funded by the
Government, will be presented later this month to an inquiry into the
future of Europe chaired by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former
French president.

The initiative aims to set the agenda for Mr Giscard's convention and to
boost British hopes of creating a simplified structure for the European
Union while entrenching the powers of national governments and
parliaments. The new president would be selected by EU leaders and would
chair ministerial meetings, assuming a wide role on the international
stage. Speculation is already rife that potential contenders could
include the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, or Tony Blair, if
Britain joined the euro.

However, the details remain sensitive because the idea of the new
presidency is opposed by small member states, which suspect they will
lose out.

In Whitehall the creation is seen as a way of heading off calls for the
president of the European Commission to be elected, something that would
strengthen the legitimacy and power of the EU's Brussels bureaucracy.

The EU has agreed to review its structures because the current
decision-making process is creaking, even before up to 10 new countries
are admitted, probably in 2004. Whitehall has been energetic in its
efforts to influence the outcome of the convention, made up of 105
politicians from the EU countries and those that want to join.

In Brussels today Gisella Stuart, a former British minister who is
chairing a working group in Mr Giscard's convention, will suggest that
national parliaments should be able to scrutinise proposals for new EU
laws, providing an "early warning" if they believed them to be
encroaching too much on national powers. Ms Stuart also wants to see
European Commissioners appear before MPs and new links forged between
national and European parliamentarians.

Although important divisions remain, momentum is gathering within the
convention and Mr Giscard will propose its first constitutional text at
the end of the month.

After the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, reversed Britain's traditional
opposition to the idea of a European constitution, ministers promised to
submit their own draft text to the convention. The idea of a formal
government text was dropped and, instead, the Government commissioned a
former Brussels legal expert and Cambridge academic, Alan Dashwood, to
come up with a text under a remit from the Foreign Office. Although
officials insist this "Cambridge text" is independent, it reflects the
Government's objectives.

Although the convention has months more work to do, the outline of its
likely conclusions are becoming clearer. These include sharper
definitions of the EU's remit, a strengthening of leadership in the
European Council and - less welcome to Britain - the incorporation of
the charter of fundamental rights into EU law.

The Government is now flexible on giving the charter legal status but is
insisting on guarantees that it would not take precedence over certain
domestic laws. It is also dropping its insistence that the group of
eurozone finance ministers, from which the UK is excluded, should not
take decisions. Ministers now accept that after EU enlargement this
position would not be tenable if the eurozone countries wanted
decision-making powers.

Yesterday Peter Hain, the Minister for Europe, endorsed proposals for
the future of Europe put forward by the Party of European Socialists, to
which Labour is allied, saying they implied support for the idea of a
new EU president.

The document calls for changes to the six-month rotating presidency of
the EU, adding that "a longer term for the new presidency, aimed at
safeguarding the continuity of council policies, should be part of a
wider arrangement."