[A-List] EU integration struggles

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

Giscard unveils draft for 'United Europe'

Ian Black in Brussels
Tuesday October 29, 2002
The Guardian

The former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing ran into immediate
British opposition to some of his key ideas when he unveiled a
carefully-balanced draft for a European Union constitution yesterday.

Senior government sources insisted that there was "not a cat in hell's
chance" that the union could be renamed the United States of Europe or
United Europe: two of the suggestions in the document.

Mr Giscard began the final phase of the convention on the EU's future by
presenting his document after months of heated discussion about how to run
an enlarged union of 25 or more members from 2004.

Tony Blair gave a guarded welcome to the blueprint in a Commons statement
devoted to last week's Brussels summit spat with Jacques Chirac, the current
French president, about the reform of the common agricultural policy.

Mr Giscard's draft proposals, the prime minister said, clearly emphasising
the positive, made it clear that "Europe should cooperate as a union of
European states, not a federal superstate".

But government sources were adamant that there were "red lines" in the
document that Britain found unacceptable, especially what the EU should be
called in 2004.

Article one says it could be called the European Community, the European
Union, United Europe (Mr Giscard's favourite) or the United States of
Europe.

Britain's response was swift and blunt. "There is not a cat in hell's chance
of it being called the United States of Europe," a senior official said. "If
anything, it will be called the European Union."

The convention, which is preparing the most ambitious reorganisation the
union has ever undergone, has 105 representatives of the 15 current member
states, the 13 candidate countries and the European and national
parliaments.

Its brief is to make the union's unwieldy and outdated structures work
better and to try to bridge the often yawning gap between disenchanted
citizens and remote institutions, partly by explaining precisely the complex
division of powers between the union and its members.

British officials gave a warm welcome to the proposed article eight, which
makes clear the primacy of the nation state. "Any competence not conferred
on the union by the constitution rests with the member states," it says.

Mr Giscard's text is a skeleton, suggesting only brief chapter headings for
the constitutional treaty, but it nevertheless gives a clear sense of the
direction he is likely to take when the final version is published next
summer.

It contains something for almost everyone. Article one, for example,
describes "a union of European states which, while retaining their national
identities, closely coordinate their policies at the European level, and
administer certain common competences on a federal basis".

Unsurprisingly, the draft attracted praise and condemnation from across the
political spectrum. David Heathcoat-Amory, a Tory Eurosceptic and convention
delegate, said the draft would endow the EU with "all the attributes of a
state", and condemned what he called a "federal advance".

But Andrew Duff, the British chairman of the convention's Liberal Democrat
caucus, was jubilant. "It allows for a radical refoundation of the EU along
explicitly federalist lines," he said.

Another key point is that that the constitution should include the EU's
charter of fundamental rights, to give a moral dimension to the union and
underline that the project is about more than just a single market and
currency.

Britain has in the past fiercely opposed this, on the grounds that it might
anchor new social rights in EU law, but government sources said it might now
be acceptable.

The draft also suggests a way for countries to leave the EU, and the idea of
a congress, including MEPs and members of national parliaments, to oversee
its strategic direction.

The text refers to the term of office and appointment procedures for a
president for the European council. This proposal is strongly backed by
Britain, France and Spain, but opposed by smaller states which fear a loss
of influence.

Mr Giscard said last week that there was a "very broad consensus" for having
a European president and ending the current practice of a six-month rotating
presidency.

Some of the main points

Values and objectives:
The draft constitution sets out the foundation stones of the EU: "human
dignity, fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law, tolerance, etc."
Its aims include promoting social cohesion, strengthening economic and
monetary union, and high employment.

Name:
The European Union, the European Community, United States of Europe or
United Europe. Membership would be open to 'all European states which share
the same values'.

Citizenship:
It establishes and defines union citizenship, giving citizens of member
states dual citizenship.

Powers and competences:
The constitution will define the powers of the EU's main bodies: the
supranational European commission, the directly elected European parliament
and the European council. It lists areas of union competence and those
shared with the states.

Withdrawal:
The document will establish the procedure for leaving the club. Article 45
establishes the procedure for the suspension of a member state which
violates its principles and values.