Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-106"
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"en.20011024.5.3-106"2
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"Mr President, Mrs Neyts, Commissioner Barnier, ladies and gentlemen, our group thanks the rapporteur, Mr Poos, for his report. Our colleagues in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, led by our coordinator, Mr Méndez de Vigo, have, of course, been committed to supporting his work. This report, though, sets alarm bells ringing. When the report observes – an observation that I welcome, although I regret its accuracy – that the coordinating role of the General Affairs Council has been undermined, the Commission's right to take initiatives weakened and, finally, government-level cooperation in Council built up to the detriment of cooperation at Community level, then that is cause for alarm as regards the Council's ability to operate.
Please let me make a final observation, which is not directed at my esteemed colleague Mr Poos: I hope that the present members of the Council have the strength and insight to come to the right decisions while they belong to the Council and not only after becoming honourable Members of this European Parliament.
The Foreign Ministers, who at present constitute the General Affairs Council, can no longer perform this duty adequately. They travel around the world – which is after all what they are meant to do – spend a few hours in the Council, leave their deputies to represent them and are not there for the vote anyway. That is why the Council should, for once, take its Rules of Procedure, more specifically Article 11(4), seriously and check how many Ministers are actually present at the concluding votes.
We need, then, a new General Affairs Council. Let us call it a Council of European Ministers, meeting weekly, or more often if necessary, in Brussels or, of course, in the national capitals, and always available within their governments. We also insist on something to which Commissioner Barnier has referred, namely that the Legislative Council which meets in public to decide on laws – not in committees, but in final rulings – needs to be separated from the Executive Council.
I hope we will reach the point where this can be established and that a Council of European Ministers – as I wish to call it for the sake of simplicity – conceived along these lines, will also be able to coordinate the work of the various Councils. Some of their voting procedures are utterly different, and the European Council must then again be asked to give authority to the Council, so that the ladies and gentlemen can deal with the matter again. Things must change!
I would like to address one point which is not particularly topical but is intended to point the way ahead. It concerns the need to find a successor to occupy Mr Hombach's position. I recommend that we should not appoint a sort of Hombach Mark II to this position, not because I have anything against Mr Hombach, but because, in institutional terms, we need to go in a new direction. I think these duties should find a home at the Commission, so that the Commission, which has the Budget resources at its disposal, can also take responsibility for these issues...
…. so that we can eventually achieve the transfer of the High Representative's functions to the remit of the Commission, where a Vice-President would take them over."@en1
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