The Convention met in plenary on 15 and 16 April. This session saw a host of developments in the working practices of the Convention, including the nomination of Lojze Peterle of Slovenia as the representative of the candidate countries on the Presidium. Although he will have no voting right, he will from now on be a full participant in the work of the Presidium. The inclusion of a representative from a candidate country on the Presidium was not foreseen in the Laeken Declaration, and this development demonstrates two things: that the Convention is developing its own dynamic, and that the candidate countries are determined to play a full part in the work of the Convention.

The Presidium has also established a system to allow members from candidate countries to speak in their own languages. So far, provision has been made for members from Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia to speak in their own languages, and other candidate countries may follow suit if they choose. The Presidium and the European Parliament are to be congratulated for their flexibility in finding a solution to this, which will allow the citizens of candidate countries greater access to the proceedings of the Convention and a stronger sense of having a part to play in the future of Europe. The Presidium also introduced a mechanism to allow debate between Convention members. The predetermined speakers list is now to be interrupted after every fifth speaker to allow for short interventions from the floor. This new system should contribute towards a more lively and interactive debate as the Convention proceeds. The tone of this week’s discussions was more concrete and specific than previous sessions, marking the extent to which Convention members are now moving away from fine rhetoric and starting to focus on the real issues.

The main topic of the session was “The Missions of Europe”, a broad title which allowed speakers to raise a multitude of issues. The main focus was on the issues of greater democratic accountability; the division of competences; and establishing an effective Common Foreign and Security Policy. The Youth Convention was also discussed during Tuesday’s session. John Bruton, from Ireland, stressed that the Convention must tackle the question of how the Union can meet the needs of the citizens – providing security, opportunity, and solidarity – and focus on solving real problems, not merely transferring political responsibility for them between institutions. French Minister Pierre Moscovici stressed the need to ensure a clear and simple decision-making procedure which would make it clear where responsibility for decisions lay, allowing genuine democratic accountability. On the important question of competences, many speakers rejected the idea of a rigid catalogue of competences, stressing the need for flexibility and the preservation of the Union´s dynamism, but also emphasised that the existing system is too complex and lacking in transparency. Erwin Teufel, Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, raised the question of whether some tasks currently carried out at the European level might not more effectively be returned to the national or regional levels, while agreeing that there other issues which should be transferred to the level of the Union. Mesut Yilmaz, from Turkey, emphasised the need for a more effective CFSP and for more Union powers in the field of environment policy, while Alain Lamassoure MEP called for a stronger and more united European voice in the world to promote peace, on our own continent and beyond.

This week´s debate only succeeded in scratching the surface of what is the central issue to be tackled by the Convention. The debate on the Missions of Europe is one which will certainly continue in the Convention and elsewhere for the weeks and months to come.

Alison Weston
mailto:alison.weston@jef-europe.net