Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-102"
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"en.20011024.5.3-102"2
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".
Mr President, Mr Poos, ladies and gentlemen, I find myself in an awkward position here, since I have to take the floor as President of an institution which, according to Mr Poos, is the most badly organised of all those in the European Union. Therefore, the task is, without doubt, fraught with danger.
By way of example, the General Affairs Council has therefore followed the practice recommended at Helsinki, to divide its agenda accordingly into two parts: external relations issues and horizontal questions, which include overall policy coordination.
The General Affairs Council has also reduced the number of formations of the Council to sixteen, in order to improve the coherence of work, and to prevent fragmentation of the EU’s activities. The role of COREPER was clarified in the Council’s internal rules of procedure. Public debates are now organised on new and important legislative proposals, and on the programme of the General Affairs Council and the ECOFIN Council.
The first assessment regarding the implementation of the Helsinki recommendations was presented by the Council’s Secretary-General at the Gothenburg European Council in June 2001. From this, it emerged that progress has been made, but a great deal still needs to be done.
You are right in thinking that the Presidency was very interested to read Mr Poos’ report on Council reform. Mr Poos has had a remarkable political career spent in many European forums and is consequently well acquainted with them, both internally, having been a participant, and externally, having observed them from a critical standpoint.
That being the case, I would like to say that the Presidency fully supports the analysis, perhaps not the description, but the analysis stating that we need to improve the way in which the Council is run.
The Helsinki European Council of June 1999 has already acknowledged that substantial changes in the Council’s working methods are necessary, and pointed out that these changes must be gradually introduced from now on so that by the time of enlargement, the Council can smoothly accommodate a larger membership.
The same Council also approved operational recommendations to achieve this. The main thrust of these recommendations is very similar to some of the proposals made in Mr Poos’ report. I shall mention just a few.
The recommendations stressed, therefore, that the main task of the European Council should be to provide the necessary impetus for the Union’s development and to define general political guidelines. They emphasised that the General Affairs Council is responsible for overall coordination.
There was also a call to improve coordination of European policy within Member States. The recommendations stressed that the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) has responsibility for the final preparation and presentation of all agenda items to the Council.
The final recommendation was to restrict the number of formations of the Council.
These recommendations, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, were implemented in parallel."@en1
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