Posted Sunday, June 1, 2003; 14.38BST
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's draft E.U. constitution got slammed last week, but the patrician head of the Convention can take solace in the fact that the critics come from both sides of the divide. Some followed the U.K.'s lead in thinking national prerogatives need more protection, while others — particularly those from smaller states, the European Commission and the European Parliament — think the draft doesn't push hard enough for deeper integration. That leaves the field open for plenty of horse trading before the proposed constitution is presented to European government leaders in Thessaloniki, Greece, on June 20. Some of the sharper bones of contention:
A full-time President of the European Council Giscard's draft proposes to scrap the rotating presidency of the European Council, which puts a new member state into the chair every six months. Instead, national leaders would elect a president — presumably a former national leader — to preside over their meetings for a renewable 21/2-year term. That proposal, championed by the large states, has gathered significant support — even among smaller ones who recognize that in an enlarged E.U. of 25, the current system would only give them a shot every 121/2 years . But there are still worries that a permanent President would strengthen the power of member states — particularly big ones — and block the Commission's attempts to make laws in the interests of Europe as a whole. The smaller states are hoping, as one member of the presidium puts it, that "two-headed animals have a short life" and that in another decade the two presidencies will merge into one.
The size of the Commission The draft calls for a maximum of 15 members of the European Commission, the executive body that proposes and administers E.U. laws. This sticks in the craw of smaller countries, which see having their own commissioner as a necessary bulwark against big states' power. Giscard's aides argue that it is inefficient to allow the number of portfolios at the Commission to be dictated by the number of member states; "We'd only infect the Commission, which is supposed to consider the interests of Europe as a whole, with intergovernmentalism," says one. The draft proposes up to 15 "associate commissioners" as a sop to an enlarged Union, but other fixes are making the rounds, such as a system that guarantees every country a commissioner post for 10 of every 15 years.
National vetoes on foreign and security policy Under the draft, national governments have to agree unanimously on foreign policy. That means that the U.K. and France, for instance, can veto any effort by the other to turn its position on the next Iraq-style crisis into E.U. policy. Critics say that if Europe's foreign policy is ever to be more than a fuzzy lowest common denominator of national positions, a European policy should be nailed down by a majority vote with no veto. Commission President Romano Prodi said that by preserving national vetoes over foreign policy, taxation and financial policy, the draft "threatens to paralyze Europe." But Tony Blair — and for that matter Jacques Chirac — would never back a constitution that lacked a veto provision on foreign policy.
Powers of the European Parliament Giscard's draft extends the number of areas in which the European Parliament can fully legislate from 34 to 70, giving the E.U.'s only directly elected institution more say in energy, transportation, and curtailing illegal immigration and organized crime. But many in the Parliament want a bigger say in setting the E.U.'s long-range budget plans; the draft only lets them in on how to spend annual budgets within the seven-year frameworks laid out by the member states. German conservative M.E.P. Elmar Brok says his group will oppose a proposal he says reduces Parliament to a mere "legislative machinery" for the internal market instead of exercising its inherent budgetary rights. Stronger parliamentary powers, he and others argue, would counter deals like the one between France and Germany last autumn to stymie reform of the wasteful Common Agricultural Policy, which consumes almost half of the E.U.'s budget.
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