The show WILL go on!
The EU Constitution - which has been rejected by decisive majorities - in France and the Netherlands and elsewhere - is still on the agenda of the European leaders. Their quotations give reason to stay alert. After a "period of confusion" their initial dilemma remains: How to push through their vision of Europe against the will of the electorate? It seems that many in the EU’s institutions do not understand that we need a shift in the quality of participation in the political and legislative processes of the EU.
All the quotes
26 June 2007 - A new package for an old content? Many people have criticized Mrs. Merkel’s attempts to revive the Constitution rejected two years ago by the French and the Dutch. Critics are mostly based on the feeling that no matter what the people say, the EU is to advance, reinforce, harmonise, integrate... It has been true in the past, it is true today! On the EU leaders’ confession, the content of the new treaty is merely the same than the old one:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel: “The fundamentals of the Constitution have been maintained in large part… We have renounced everything that makes people think of a state, like the flag, and the national anthem.” El pais (25 June).
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier: The mandate approved by the EU will “preserve the substance of the constitutional treaty.” Agence Europe (25 June).
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero: “A great part of the content of the European Constitution is captured in the new treaties.” El Pais (25 June).
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern: “… Thankfully they haven’t changed the substance – 90 percent of it is still there.” Irish Independent (24 June).
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen: “The good thing is… that all the symbolic elements are gone, and that which really matters – the core – is left.” Jyllands-Posten (25 June).
Finland’s Europe Minister Astrid Thors: “There is nothing from the original institutional package that has been changed.” TV-Nytt (23 June) (Source: Open Europe)
25 May 2007 - "We must come up with a mutually acceptable solution that does justice to the concerns which emerged following the Dutch and French referenda", Dutch prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende said in the European Parliament on Wednesday 23 May. Although he recognizes the need to reform the EU, Balkenende is in favour “of a more traditional document, in the same vein as the treaties of Amsterdam or Nice”. The new EU treaty should drop the name “Constitution” as it was a major factor in the Dutch rejection in 2005. Among the other requested changes Balkenende expressed his concern about giving up the Dutch veto right if the qualified majority voting is implemented. He also pledged the reinforcement of national parliaments control on EU policies: "If a majority of national parliaments are opposed to a given proposal, there must be consequences". Finally, he criticized the rate at which the EU extends its borders. "After the latest round we have to realise that the public needs time to get used to the EU in its new form. Things have changed too quicky for some people's taste," Balkenende said. Dutch prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende (23 May 2007) (Source: EUobserver).
09 May 2007 - Alain Lamassoure explained EUobserver that the newly elected Sarkozy plans to stick "as much as possible to the original text" talking about the Constitution that has been rejected by the French population two years ago. In other words, the controversial expressions will disappear but the consequences will be the same. Referring to the post of European Foreign Minister, he said that: "as long as his status and powers are preserved we're fine with [a title change]." The only real change will be with regards to the Charter of Fundamental Right, this part will be reformulated so that “the charter can be interpreted as legally binding in some countries, such as France and Germany, and non-binding in others, such as the UK." Finally, he reaffirmed Sarkozy’s stance towards Turkey: "EU leaders have been lying to Turks for the past few years and the new French leadership believes we must stop doing so," meaning that the talks on Turkey’s accession should be compromised. French UMP Member Alain Lamassoure (8 May 2007) (Source: EUObserver).
04 May 2007 - According to Czech officials, “further discussions should be based on the current draft of the Treaty on the Constitution for Europe”, but it is necessary that the new treaty “bring more transparency, clarity and simplicity”. They also argue that despite common knowledge, the EU is not in a situation of crisis and that any reform step should therefore be taken with a sense of extreme responsibility. The report also points out that “the new treaty must not aggravate the current position or weight of the Czech Republic and countries of similar size in the voting procedure”. Furthermore, the government believes that it is necessary to remove all the statehood attributes from the proposal, such as the anthem or the word “constitution”. Finally, national parliaments must be allowed to “review European Commission legislative drafts with the possibility to reject any legal draft compromising the subsidiarity principle”. Transfers of powers in the area of shared competences must become a two-way process with competences going back to the member states in order to “boost the Union’s credibility in the eyes of the citizens”. (download the report online)
24 April 2007 - In a letter leak seen by the Times, Mrs. Merkel showed once again that she was determined to make only minimal changes to the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. The letter, sent to the European leaders, listed 12 discussion points for a new treaty, including a new name for the proposed EU foreign minister, as well as for the document itself. She was quoted saying: “Every effort will have to be made to restrict change to what is absolutely necessary to reach an overall agreement and to ensure ratification by all member states.”
Among the 12 discussion points, Angela Merkel is reported asking: “How do you assess the proposal made by some member states to use different terminology without changing the legal substance — for example with regard to the title of the treaty, the denomination of legal acts, and the union’s minister of foreign affairs.” In the same way, she asks whether to “replace the full text of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by a short cross reference having the same legal value”. As proposed by Mr Blair, the replacement for the Constitution could be presented as a treaty that amends the Nice Treaty of 2001, she said, “with the necessary presentational changes resulting from the return to the classical method of treaty changes”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (21 April 2007) (Source: Times Online).
19 April 2007 - After a three hours meeting with Angela Merkel earlier this week (Tuesday), Czech President Vaclav Klaus has declared that Germany has understood that there will be no breakthrough over the EU charter during its six-month term at the bloc’s chair. “There is a qualitative shift going on” Mr. Klaus said, adding that Germany seems to realise that substantive changes in the funtionning of the EU are more important than a timetable for solving the Constitutional impasse.
On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Kaczynski, leader of the other Eastern European country opposing the current draft of the Constitution, was meeting Commision’s President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels to pledge for a new voting model. “Poland is not satisfied with a situation in which from quite a privileged position in the Nice structure we are to become one of the least privileged,” Kaczynski said. Analysts notes however that Poland did not threaten to veto German efforts to revive the EU Constitution if it doesn’t get a satisfactory outcome on this.
According to the Financial Times, in preparation of the June 2007 summit, it seems that Mrs. Merkel has “launched a two month mission to save something from the wreckage of the EU Constitution”.
Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus (17 April 2007) (Source: EUobserver). Polish Prime Minister Kaczynski (18 April 2007) (Source: EUobserver). Other sources: Open Europe (19 April 2007), Financial Times (18 April 2007).
17 April 2007 - After a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has indicated that he would support the Dutch proposal of a new Treaty rather than trying to revive the Constitution. “It is important we go back to the idea of a conventional treaty where the idea is to make Europe more effective, work more effectively, because we now have a Europe of 27 countries rather than 15”, Blair said. Criticising the scope of the actual treaty, Blair argued “There's all the difference in the world between a constitutional treaty that is an attempt to consolidate... to write all the rules of the European Union, to give rise to a whole new set of legal principles - and an amending treaty within the existing European treaties that makes the rules work more effectively.” According to EUobserver, by joining the group of minimalists (Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands), Tony Blair is probably trying to avoid an unpredictable referendum in the UK. Nevertheless, Blair’s speech is radically different than the one he used to hold in 2004, when he announced a national referendum on the EU Constitution… UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (17 Apr 2007) (Source: EUobserver).
16 April 2007 - In an interview with Le Monde, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra was quoted saying that “We are ready to participate in finding a consensus, so that everything is ready for 2009… We have agreed that the Constitutional text as it was signed constitutes a basis for negociation”. Although he said 80% of the text remained valid, Vondra insisted that he would favour the suppression of the third part. He also said that a mere reference to the European Convention of Human Rights should replace the Charter of Fundamental rights. Concerning the Institutional reforms, Vondra said he would be ok with a fusion of the job of High Representative for Foreign Policy and the Commissioner for External Relations. In the end, Vondra said he would prefer “Nice plus to less Constitution” and confirmed his support to the UK in defending a minimalist version of the Treaty. Czech Republic Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra (13 Apr 2007) (Source: Open Europe).
11 April 2007 - Talking about the renewed negociations on an EU Treaty the Dutch government represented by Europe Minister Frans Timmermans has declared to Dutch MEP’s that it would “simply not put to ratification a Treaty that was rejected by a large majority of the Dutch population”. The government stated that the new Treaty should focus on the current shortcommings rather that aiming to become a Constitution as such. Although this is bad news for Mrs Merkel, Frans Timmermans insisted on the government’s commitment to play a constructive role in the talks. He supported the reform of the decision-making system but rejected the engravement of the Charter of Fundamental Rights as such in the Treaty. Timmermans also supported the definition of clear rules for enlargement, stating that “There is merit in defining very clearly the criteria applied to membership, and perhaps good merit in incorporating the criteria for membership into a new treaty”. To the question “will there be another referendum in the Netherlands?” Timmermans said that any decision on the matter would depend on the size and the scope of the document. Dutch Europe Minister Frans Timmermans (10 Apr 2007)(Source: EUobserver).
11 April 2007 - Leading member of the French right UMP and head of the Europe committee in the national assembly, Pierre Lequiller, presented a concrete outline for the new look treaty and how to revive it. He supports a simplified treaty that includes the first part on the Institutional reforms plus six articles from the rest of the treaty. The six articles concern the creation of an EU diplomatic service, qualified majority voting in foreign and security issues; updating the bloc' humanitarian tasks in security and defence; structured cooperation on defence issues; rules on drawing up the annual budget; and the procedure for reviewing the treaty. The EU policies would be summed up in three additional protocols. This would bring the treaty from 448 to 116 articles, Lequiller however rejected the association with Sarkozy’s mini-treaty. Leading member of French UMP Pierre Lequiller (10 Apr 2007)(Source: EUobserver).
...to be continued...
