Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-28-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20011128.4.3-021"2
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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, the areas to be discussed at the European Council in Brussels-Laeken on 14 and 15 December will include the future of the European Union, European security and defence policy, enlargement, the fight against terrorism, the area of freedom, security and justice, the general situation of the EU and its prospects, employment and social cohesion, headquarters and various bodies and agencies, and lastly, external relations.
When the Prime Minister visits each capital city, he will present an outline of the Laeken Declaration. The subjects that the Convention may tackle will be presented in this outline in the form of questions and choices, so as to enable the delegations to issue an opinion with full background knowledge.
To sum up what I have said on this important matter, I would like to make the following comments. Whatever the content of the Laeken Declaration, the Convention will remain in charge of its own agenda. I think that there would be no point into trying to shackle it with a predefined mandate.
The Presidency has attempted to set out and clarify the themes dealt with at Nice, where the declaration was willingly drafted in a relatively open manner. Nothing that the Presidency proposes should be interpreted as a mandate for the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference. The mandate of this conference will be decided in accordance with the procedures laid down under the Treaties. Lastly, the goal of the Laeken Declaration is to ensure that the Convention method is fruitful and that its results are taken up by the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference.
The debate on the future of Europe must also aim to make the European Union more transparent, more effective, and bring it closer to its citizens. In this regard, the Council took great interest in Mrs Kaufmann’s report on the White Paper on European Governance. The report contains some valuable guidance. I particularly support the concern to ensure that the greater involvement of civil society in the way the Union works does not adversely affect the key role played by the representatives that have political responsibility.
I shall now turn to the European security and defence policy. The Presidency will submit a report to the European Council that sets out the progress that has been made. Work is well underway on improving military capabilities and strengthening civil capabilities, as shown at the capabilities conferences held on 19 and 20 November 2001. With regard to declaring the European security and defence policy operational, the Union is faced with the following dilemma: either it cannot issue the declaration because of a veto imposed by one of the NATO members, who is not a member of the EU, or the Union declares it operational without the declaration having any real capabilities, as it is unable to use NATO assets. In both cases, I want to draw your attention to the fact that it is, of course, the Union’s credibility that is at stake. The third approach recommended by the Presidency is to declare that the Union will decide how to respond to each situation, depending on the military and civil resources and capabilities at its disposal. These are my comments on the European security and defence policy.
With regard to the future of the European Union, the European Council will adopt the text of a declaration that will launch the debate on the future of Europe. The first chapter of the text will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of European integration, the second will bring together the issues that the Convention might tackle, and the third will set out how the debate will be organised.
The General Affairs Council of 19 November has already confirmed that the Member States agree on the procedures. The principle of calling a preparatory Convention is an important step towards building a Union that is stronger, more readily understood by the people, and more focused on meeting its essential objectives.
Representatives from governments, the Commission, the national parliaments and the European Parliament will take part in the Convention. With regard to the candidate countries, the Presidency’s proposal is based on the following principles: they will be fully involved in the work of the Convention with the right to express their views; they will be represented in the same way as Member States, in other words, by one representative for each government and two parliamentary representatives. The representatives from candidate countries who have not yet signed their accession treaty will not take part in the consensus when the Convention draws up its final report.
The Chair of the Convention will be appointed by the Laeken European Council. The Chair will be assisted by a Presidium made up of representatives of the various component groups of the Convention. The Presidency-in-Office of the Council will take part, but the precise involvement of representatives of the following two presidencies is yet to be decided upon.
Lastly, the Secretariat of the Convention will be fulfilled by the Council’s General Secretariat, which will be able to enlist the help of the Commission, as well as the secretariats of the European Parliament and the national parliaments.
We have reached unanimous agreement on consulting civil society through representative organisations at European and national level. We dispensed with the idea of a Forum made up of a separate assembly. These organisations could be interviewed or consulted in line with methods that are yet to be defined. The contributions from these organisations will be included in the official documentation sent to members of the Convention.
The Convention will begin its work as soon as possible under the Spanish Presidency and will complete its proceedings by the European Council in June 2003. We are still considering the length of time that will pass between the end of the Convention’s work and the beginning of the Intergovernmental Conference.
With regard to the themes, the Presidency’s approach was to work on the basis of the content of the Declaration of Nice to draw up a sufficiently broad and coherent mandate, which the Presidency could use for its work. The Presidency supports the recommendations made by the rapporteurs, Mr Leinen and Mr Méndez De Vigo, on this point. These themes are placed in five groups of open and impartial questions: the goals and the content of the Union’s policies, the division of competences between the Union and its Member States, the democratic legitimacy of the system, the ability of the Union to decide on and to pursue policies."@en1
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