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PAOLA BUONADONNA: Europe faces one of its hardest
challenges this year...After four decades its institutions need to move
on and reform to allow 13 more countries to join. It needs to become more
efficient -- and more accountable. Here at the European Parliament democratically
elected MEPs from all the 15 countries of the Union meet to give their
opinion on legislation, and they can modify or reject some bills.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: It is obvious that the way the
Union is ruled today, the way it works it would no longer be possible with
about 30 or probably even more that thirty countries in the Union so we
have to reform the institutions.
BUONADONNA: The Commission is the Union's
executive body. Its 20 members, drawn from the 15 states, initiate legislation
and implement it once its been approved. Recent corruption scandals have
done nothing to improve its popularity. But its here, in the Council of
Ministers that the real power lies ... representatives from the 15 countries
gather in this building to discuss every policy, from farming to finance.
In the most sensitive areas each minister still has a veto. Their new
task of reforming the institutions, will take at least a year. They will
have to fight their own corner on a painful series of compromises.
MICHAEL BARNIER: Any negotiation involves compromise,
and I don't reject this word - it doesn't mean that anyone is going to
be humiliated. Each party gains because everyone gains. We have a serious
and historic responsibility, this is why I call it 'the moment of truth'
for the European Union.
BUONADONNA: The negotiations are called
the Intergovernmental Conference or IGC. It will be in this room that
ministers and diplomats will begin the IGC in a week's time. For Britain
it's a moment of truth. Next week the government will present its plans
for the IGC. It will have to tread a difficult line between the requests
of its partners who want a deeper more integrated Europe, its own desire
to be at the heart of Europe the danger of giving any ammunition to Eurosceptics
who will challenge any concessions made to other countries.
FRANCIS MAUDE: Well, Tony Blair's got to
start standing up for Britain. For two and a half years now he's just gone
with the flow, everything they've proposed he's gone along with, he wants
to give up power all the time apparently in the vain pursuit of influence.
Well he, Tony Blair has got to understand that leadership is about standing
up for what Britain's interests are - that you gain influence by having
power, you don't gain it by giving power up.
BUONADONNA: The Labour government has been
trying to agree a common stance on Europe with the Liberal Democrats -
in May last year they agreed an initiative on defence. This week they've
come out with a document setting out a joint strategy on the IGC.
CAMPBELL: There's always a trade-off
for British governments between domestic considerations and taking a proper
place in Europe. It's part, I think, of the British psychology that this
should be the case. But there's an opportunity here. There's an opportunity
for a Prime Minister with a majority of a hundred and seventy nine, who
still stands astride the British political stage. Mr Blair can and should
show leadership in Europe, it will be in his interest and in the interests
of the people of the United Kingdom as well.
BUONADONNA: But out in the negotiating
arena the European players face some tough challenges. The first is the
suggestion that more decisions should be taken by a substantial majority
rather than a unanimous vote when ministers tackle issues in the Council.
Both the European Commission and most member states want this to happen.
The UK accepts this but Tony Blair says he'll block any moves to give up
the veto on any aspects of taxation, defence, border controls or social
security.
BARNIER: I don't think there is
any reason to be afraid of the qualified majority if it enables us to decide
on certain policies together. You ask me what are the limits: the limits
as far as issues of taxation are concerned is that we propose only to decide
by qualified majority on taxation on areas linked to the efficient functioning
of the internal market. All of us, the UK, France , Germany and all the
other member states have agreed to the creation of a single market in the
interest of the companies, employees and consumers. Where there are taxes
directly related to the efficient functioning of the rules of competition
between us we propose to get rid of the obstacle of unanimity.
BUONADONNA: Britain has come under pressure
from its partners around the European table to introduce a new tax on savings
which would upset the City. The government has been relying on its power
to veto any tax changes. But even some government supporters concede that
for other aspects of taxation the veto could be removed.
MARTIN: We say enlargement should
continue to require unanimity and certain sensitive issues like aspects
of taxation and social security should require unanimity but beyond those
sort of core issues then everything else should routinely be done by not
a simple majority but a qualified majority vote.
MAUDE: I think losing the veto
over tax matters would be quite wrong - I mean I don't think we could contemplate
that for a second. Because when you think about it, in a democracy the
most vital link there is between legislators and the public is tax.
BUONADONNA: Another controversial set of
reforms involves freezing the number of Commissioners - there's already
a team of 20 and there'll be more when Europe is enlarged. At the moment
big countries have two commissioners and they're willing to lose one, provided
they get more voting power in the Council of Ministers, to reflect more
realistically the size of their population. Small countries are willing
to give up some votes in exchange for keeping their one commissioner in
the team. But there is even a suggestion that no country would be guaranteed
a commissioner and the positions would instead rotate between the 15 members.
BARNIER: That option means that
you would have a stable number of commissioner, 20 commissioners, who each
perform their functions based on a system of rotation under which each
country would be on equal footing with the rest. There could be times when
a particular country did not have a national representative on the commission
but perhaps that would be better than having a weak commission.
MAUDE: We want to have a smaller
commission, but I think it would be quite unacceptable, at any rate for
the five countries that currently have two commissioners, not at least
to have one Commissioner permanently.
BUONADONNA: The country currently in the
driving seat in the Council of ministers is Portugal. This former imperial
power does not rule the world these days - but for the next six months
it has the Presidency of the Union and will be in charge of the Inter Governmental
Conference.
The Portuguese Government
wants an ambitious agenda for the negotiations. The Socialist Prime Minister
Antonio Guterres is a friend of Tony Blair but he has a much bolder vision
of what Europe should be about. Like the European Commission, he wants
to use this opportunity to push ahead for faster and deeper with integration.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: I think we will need not only
changes in the bodies themselves, the institutions themselves, but also
in the decision making process, making it more easy to have decisions by
qualified majority and more easy to allow a group of countries to go deeper
in European integration if, even if all will not be ready to do so.
BUONADONNA: The way Portugal and other
member states hope to win that is by reinforced co-operation or flexibility
- where a group of countries can decide to push ahead with further integration
even if other countries want to put the proposal on ice and opt out - just
as with the single currency. Last year eleven countries joined the Euro
leaving Britain and three others behind. The danger for Tony Blair is
that flexibility could mean Britain finds itself further sidelined as the
core Euroland countries move ahead in other areas.
GUTERRES: The British Government
is doing a lot in order to have a very positive role in the European construction,
we fully appreciate it. In my opinion when a country is interested in belonging
to a Union and at the same time is interested in preserving some specific
areas I think it would be much easier to accept a reinforced co-operation
or a mechanism of flexibility than to accept a decision-making process
with a qualified majority, because if there is a qualified majority of
course all countries will be forced to do according to what is decided
by the majority if there is a reinforced co-operation it means it will
allow some countries to move forward but will allow others to be out,
as it is now the case for Britain with the Euro.
DAVID MARTIN: The only reason that I can
imagine the British government worries about flexibility is that they accepted
the argument that sooner or later Britain always signs up for European
initiatives so they are worried if nine or ten countries go ahead and create
a new policy on their own that sooner or later Britain will join. Again,
I don't fully accept that argument - either we'll join because it is in
our interest to join and then good news, that we allowed the other nine
or ten to be the pioneers in this, or if it doesn't become in our interest
we won't join, I think there is unnecessary caution here on the part of
the British government.
BUONADONNA: It's not just Tony Blair's
allies spurring him on - the new Shadow Foreign Secretary, Francis Maude
has already assured Commissioner Barnier that the Conservatives welcome
flexibility. But they interpret it as allowing countries to pick and choose
which new rules they're prepared to accept. Conservatives hope flexibility
will eventually lead to a looser, shallower Union.
MAUDE: Tony Blair has this absurd
view, he says there's only two ways, two types of relationship with Europe
- one is to accept everything - Social Chapter, the Euro Army, the Single
Currency all of that, to go with the flow on all of that; and he says if
you don't do that, if you don't buy the whole super state package, then
you must want to be out of it altogether - and that's ridiculous. The moderate,
mainstream, common sense approach is to say you can be in it, without having
to accept everything that comes out of Brussels and without having to be
run by Europe. And you know, that's the common sense approach and flexibility
will be crucial to that.
BUONADONNA: The Conservative view of flexibility
has found little support so far in Brussels. Those influential with the
Government argue it shouldn't be frightened to embrace the European concept
of flexibility.
GRANT: I think the Conservatives
maybe like the idea of flexibility because they do not want Britain to
be part of many European projects for integration, they want Britain to
be left out, so they're very happy to have flexible structures that allow
Britain to stay out. I understand why the Government's against that because
they don't want Britain to become a semi-detached member of the European
Union. I'm taking a more positive view on flexibility. I think flexibility
could be a good idea not because Britain should stay outside but because
some of the new countries in Eastern Europe won't have strong enough economies
to actually take part in all the EU policies.
BUONADONNA: These fundamental reforms in
Europe put Tony Blair in an awkward position at home. The year-long negotiations
will inevitably generate a stream of negative stories on Europe, which
will be seized upon by the opposition. And the conclusion of the process,
when the hard decisions will have to be made could come uncomfortably
close to the date of the next general election.
MARTIN: There are two ways of dealing
with that - one, you could wish it goes away and try and play it as low
key as possible but Europe never ends up being a low key issue, or you
can say let us prepare public opinion now, let's have the debates now and
let's explain to the public what we are trying to achieve through this
process. And I would very much urge on the Prime Minister the latter course,
we should be going public now on what the IGC is about.
CAMPBELL: Right at the beginning
when he went into Number Ten Downing Street, Mr Blair sought to emphasise
the commitment of the Labour party to Europe. The Liberal Democrat commitment
is long standing. But from time to time Mr Blair has seemed to be a little
less warm towards Europe than his earlier statements might have suggested.
The Liberal Democrats want to encourage him to show leadership in this
matter, not to be timid and not in any way to be deflected by sections
of the popular press here in the United Kingdom.
BUONADONNA: Europe must move on the reforms
and fast - its own credibility is at stake in this process. Every country
will have to accept some painful compromises. The challenge for the British
government is to persuade the public that the reforms are not just another
plot from the corridors of Brussels to grab more power.
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