Posted on 12/17/2001 1:40:48 PM PST by silmaril
The European Union opened a new chapter in its history with a decision at the weekend to create a special convention that could lead to a constitution in 2004.
In a far-reaching declaration on the future of Europe, EU leaders set out their aim of bridging the gap between the EU and its citizens, calling on the union to become more democratic, transparent and efficient.
At its summit in the Belgian town of Laeken, 15 governments of all political hues, agreed that the EU "stands at a crossroads, a defining moment in its existence". Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian prime minister and summit host, said the declaration aimed to start a debate on Europe "with no taboos".
About 100 people will meet from next March in the convention chaired by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, former French president. They will consider about 50 questions on how to improve the EU's institutions and working methods in readiness for its enlargement from 15 to more than 25 member states.
For the first time, members of the European parliament and national parliaments will sit alongside government representatives and European Commission members to prepare options for an intergovernmental conference on reforming the EU. The 13 applicant countries will be represented by officials and parliamentarians with nearly as many rights as convention members from EU states.
The convention is intended to prevent any repetition of the bickering behind closed doors that marred the EU's last effort at reform a year ago in Nice and which threatened the weekend meeting at Laeken.
The summit came to an abrupt close on Saturday evening when Mr Verhofstadt decided that discussions over the sharing out of EU regulatory agencies among member states were deadlocked.
"When I saw it was impossible to get agreement, I refused to start further negotiating rounds which probably would have lasted hours and hours and which would have given a very negative image of what Europe is all about," he said.
Earlier, in signing up to the Laeken declaration, the leaders, including Tony Blair, UK prime minister, agreed to wording suggesting that the EU's four treaties could "in the long run" form a constitution.
However, the text also made clear that not all policy initiatives should move from national capitals to Brussels. While stressing that European institutions must be brought closer to the EU's citizens, it acknowledged that many people felt the union should refrain from intervening "in every detail" in matters best left to the elected representative of member states or regions. The summit failed to reach agreement on the agencies after Italy and France rejected proposals from the Belgian presidency.
As a stop-gap, the summit agreed that two agencies, which must start working on January 1, should have provisional locations.
Eurojust, which as a body to promote co-operation among prosecutors, has an important role in the fight against terrorism, will begin work in The Hague in the Netherlands, close to Europol, the fledgling EU police agency.
The European Food Safety Authority, which was hotly contested between Finland, promoting Helsinki, and Italy, backing Parma, will begin operating in Brussels.
This is a chilling omen. How will this "European Constitution" be imposed? Since 1992, the EU has done everything in its power to prevent member states from submitting constitutional changes to the general electorate. Given that changes must be approved unanimously, plebiscitory reverses in places like Denmark and most recently Ireland have inclined the EU to adopt a strategy of governance by fiat rather than by democracy. How, then, can the average "European" (otherwise known as Frenchman, German, Finn, etc.) have any faith that truly representative government will emerge from this process?
The American founders in Philadelphia came to their Constitutional Convention with no preordained end in mind. The result was sound deliberation and reasoned argument resulting in a fine document. This EU convention will be stage-managed and predisposed toward a centralizing end. The lonely British Tory who raises his voice in doubt will be drowned out by the chorus of Belgians, Dutch, and social democrats who desire nothing more than a more perfect -- and more inescapable -- union.
Given that Europe was the cradle of our own American liberties, it would be tragic indeed to see it slip into a paternalist technocracy.
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