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The European Council,
which met in Thessaloniki (Greece) few days ago, had
approved the draft Constitution, prepared by 105-member
Convention, headed by former French President, Mr. Valery
Giscard d’Estaing. This presentation indeed marks
a historic step in the direction of furthering the objectives
of European integration. The Intergovernmental Conference
(IGC), likely to be convened in October this year, would
further dilate upon the text. The IGC is obliged to
complete its work and agree the Constitutional Treaty
as soon as possible and in time for it to become known
to European citizens before the June 2004 elections
for the European Parliament. The acceding States will
participate fully in the Intergovernmental Conference
on an equal footing with the current Member States.
The Intergovernmental Conference will be conducted by
the Heads of State or Government assisted by the members
of the General Affairs and external relations council.
The European Parliament will be closely associated and
involved in the work of the Conference. The three candidate
countries – Bulgaria and Romania, with whom accession
negotiations are under way and Turkey – will take
part in all meetings of the Conference as observers.
The draft text has deliberated upon a number of core
issues that have been centre of debate for past few
months. The Convention, among other things has proposed
a permanent EU presidency that will last for five years.
The idea was dropped in the initial draft. “Our
Constitution is called a democracy because power is
in the hands not of minority but of the whole people”,
is foundation statement upon which the whole edifice
of the draft Constitution has been erected. The smaller
member states have voiced their concern over the certain
provisions of the draft constitution and have demanded
either their immediate removal or amendments. They have
feared the draft Constitutions, if implemented in its
present form, will lay the foundation stone of a super
state curtailing the role of the smaller states in the
future EU affairs.
The common foreign and security policy, appointment
of an EU foreign Minister, the President of the European
Council, formation of the European Commission are some
of the core issues, the Convention for Enlargement was
confronted with. Article 15 of the draft Constitution
which deals with common foreign and security policy.
The Article says, “The Union’s competence
in matters of common foreign and security policy shall
cover all areas of foreign policy and all questions
relating to the Union’s security, including the
progressive framing of a common defence policy, which
might lead to a common defence”. Then, the 2nd
clause of this Article makes it incumbent upon all the
member states to support the Union’s common foreign
and security policy in a spirit of loyalty and mutual
solidarity. The Convention has gathered required support
in favour of this Article and, therefore, the said Article
is likely to be retained as it is, in the final.
The Praesidium has dwelt upon the future structure of
the European Parliament, in Article 19 of the draft
Constitution. The Article comprises three main clauses.
The clause Two says, “The European Parliament
shall be directly elected by universal suffrage of European
citizens in free and secret ballot for a term of five
years. Its members shall not exceed seven hundred in
number. Representation of European citizens shall be
digressively proportional, with a minimum threshold
of four members per Member State”. This clause,
however, does not indicate the possible numerical strength
of the European Parliament. The President of the European
Parliament will be elected for a term of five years,
from among its members.
Article 20 deals with the composition of the European
Council. The European Council’s status is cardinal
since it comprises all the heads of State or Government
of the member states together with its president and
the president of the European Commission. As per this
provision, the EU Foreign Minister shall also participate
in the meetings of the European Council.
The main task of the European Council has been to provide
necessary impetus to Union’s development related
activities and define its general political directions
and priorities. The Council, as per the new Constitution,
would continue playing similar role. The European Council
President shall be elected by qualified majority, for
a term of two and a half years, renewable once. The
person elected must be, or have been for at least two
years, a member of the European Council. In cases of
serious malpractice, the European Council can end his
mandate according to the same procedure. It is important
to note here that the President of the European Council
may not be a member of another European institution
or hold national mandate.
Article 22 and 23 deals with the formation of the Council
of Ministers and Council formations respectively. The
Praesidium has retained most of the provisions of the
existing procedure for the formation of Ministers’
Council and Council formations. Article 24 of the draft
Constitution defines the procedure of qualified majority.
It says, “When the European Council or the Council
of Ministers take decisions by qualified majority, such
a majority shall consist of the majority of Member states,
representing at least three fifths of the population
of the Union”. Clause Two says, “Within
the European Council, its President and the President
of the Commission do not vote”.
The first clause of this particular Article has evoked
serious criticism from the smaller EU states. As per
the qualified majority rule, the big states would be
having greater say in all decisions. In other words
Germany and France being the biggest states in terms
of population would influence all the decisions of the
European Union. The smaller states have formally conveyed
their reservations to the Praesidium. Mr. Giscard wants
a system under which any vote could be won by a majority
of member states representing a majority of the EU population.
This is, nevertheless, a contentious Article and, therefore,
requires to be dealt with prudence since it may jeopardize
the enlargement prospects of the Union.
Article 25, 26 and the 27 are highly important in the
sense that they deal with the most significant institutions
such as European Commission, Commission President and
the EU foreign minister. As per this Article the European
Commission shall consist of a President and up to fourteen
other members. It may call on the help of the Associate
Commissioners. The Commission shall be completely independent,
in carrying out its responsibilities. Importantly, the
members of the Commission shall neither seek nor take
instructions from any government or other body”.
Currently, the 20-member Commission is functioning under
the aegis of Mr. Romano Parodi, who saddled in, after
the dismissal of the previous Commission, on corruption
charges.
As per the second clause of this Article, each Member
State shall submit a list of three persons, of whom
at least one must be a woman, whom it considers qualified
to be a European Commissioner. The President-elect,
taking account of European political and geographical
balance, shall, from among the names submitted, select
as members of the Commission up to thirteen persons
chosen for their competence, European commitment, and
guaranteed independence. This Article empowers the President
of the Commission to pick up as members, persons of
his own choice. It is, therefore, not necessary that
each member country has its representation in the Commission.
Article 27 elaborates the appointment of an EU foreign
minister. It says, “the European Council, deciding
by qualified majority, with the agreement of the President
of the Commission, shall appoint the Union’s Foreign
Minister. He shall conduct the Union’s common
foreign and security policy”. It is important
to note here that the foreign minister shall be from
one of vice-presidents of the Commission. No tenure
of the foreign minister has been given in the Article.
The big countries seem reluctant to borrow the idea
of having a foreign minister from within the Commission.
The draft Constitution has proposed a EU presidency
whose term would be five years. The integrationist-minded
Benelux countries want to retain the current system
of rotating the union presidency every six months. But
Britain and other big countries believe this would weaken
their concept of the full-time presidency.
In a nutshell, preparation of new constitution is always
an uphill task and, therefore, subject to amendments/changes.
The concerns shown by the smaller EU states are genuine,
hence their interests need to be looked after since
it is vital for the future well-being of the Union.
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