For the European Union

Peace, Freedom, Solidarity

Communication of the Commission on the Institutional Architecture

The number of Member States will virtually double on 1 May 2004. The point of this process is to extend to our neighbours in Europe the benefits of peace, solidarity and economic development which we enjoy today, by welcoming them into an appropriate institutional framework, which is the key to the success of the European project.

The purpose of the Commission's Communication of 22 May last 1 was to focus thought on the European Union's objectives and tasks, prior to any discussion on institutions. The Convention is currently examining the preliminary findings of its working groups and is discussing the structure of the future constitutional treaty. The Commission now wishes to contribute to the discussions by setting out the changes to the institutional framework it considers necessary to carry forward the European project.

What project for Europe?

The introduction of the euro, improvements to the internal market, coordination of economic policies, convergence of tax and social policies, solidarity between the countries and regions of Europe, making a reality of ambitious environmental policies and the affirmation of a European model of society are all developments which are broadly supported by the people of Europe, and which are necessary to ensure the balance of the European project. The Union must give added depth to a project with which its people can identify and which brings them prosperity and solidarity, and a quality of life based on preserving the environment, ensuring the viability of universally accessible high-quality services of general interest, and a high level of social protection.

The people of Europe want us to come up with answers to clearly formulated questions.
Whether it be a matter of preserving peace and security, tackling unemployment, dealing with organised crime and trafficking, rolling back poverty, ensuring equal opportunities for women, protecting the environment or ensuring the quality and safety of products, our people expect from the Union more security and stability within and more commitment on an international level, always having regard to the diversity of national, regional and local identities.

If it is to preserve this balance and the commitment of its people to the European project, the Union must consolidate and develop the integration of Europe.

To meet these expectations, the Commission has pinpointed three fundamental tasks for
tomorrow's Union: consolidating the European model of economic and social development with a view to guaranteeing its people prosperity and solidarity; developing a European area of freedom, security and justice, to give full meaning to the concept of European citizenship; and enabling the Union to exercise the responsibilities of a world power.

How should we organise ourselves?

The question we are facing is how can an enlarged Union carry out its fundamental tasks, and how can it maintain the decision-making ability and the cohesion required to press ahead with European integration.

The innovative nature and the special balance of how the Community works is a familiar
theme, the point being not to separate powers, but to share them. Thus, legislative power belongs to the European Parliament, but also to the Council; and the Council shares executive power with the European Commission, which in turn has a monopoly on legislative initiative, while responsibility for implementing policies rests very largely with the national or regional administrations.

It is essential to preserve this union of all the powers and interests and focus them on the general European interest. And we must maintain the European Commission in the form intended by the founding fathers of Europe, as an independent institution working for equal treatment between the Member States and embodying the principles of coherence, synthesis and concern for the general interest.

This vision remains true today. In certain relatively new policy fields, such as foreign and defence policy, security, justice and policing, as well as economic cooperation, we need to create systems to agree and implement policy which reflect the effectiveness and legitimacy of the Community method.

This method, which rests on the balance between the institutions at the various stages of the decision-making process, from policy formulation to implementation, with a special role for the Commission as guardian of the general interest, makes for transparency, consistency and effectiveness of action. At the same time, we can clearly see the limitations of other forms of organisation: such as intergovernmental cooperation, which is a source of inefficiency; or allowing the Union's political direction to be dictated by just a few Member States, which is a potential source of tension and dispute.

Changes will be necessary. All the institutions must refocus on their fundamental tasks and accept the need for in-depth reform.

What institutional changes?

In order to consolidate the Union's model of economic and social development, to continue the establishment of a European area of freedom, security and justice, and to enable the Union to exercise the responsibilities of a world power, the Commission proposes that the Union's modus operandi be simplified and its institutions reformed, but without changing the current institutional balance.

This endeavour to simplify and rationalise the Union's modus operandi and the running of its institutions should enable the people of Europe to identify who does what within the Union's decision-making process in a way which they will then find more transparent, simpler and less remote.

Clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the institutions is above all necessary for the three institutions, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, which today carry out the Union's legislative and executive tasks. The future constitutional treaty will nevertheless have to take due account of the full range of important tasks carried out by the Union’s other institutions and bodies, especially the Committee of the Regions, the Economic and Social Committee and the Ombudsman.

The proposed changes should not upset the institutional balance as it exists at present. They take account of the specific nature of the Union, based on the dual legitimacy of states and peoples, and do not call into question the basic principles of European integration, such as the equality between Member States.

The objective of simplification and getting closer to the people should also guide the task, based on what has been achieved to date in terms of European integration, of reworking the current treaties into a constitutional treaty which could lay out the Union's new institutional architecture.

The Convention's discussions and thinking must be based on the preliminary draft
constitutional treaty presented by the Convention Praesidium. In the light of the ideas set out in this Communication, the Commission will take an active part in the Convention's work on drawing up the constitutional treaty. It considers that the Convention method, by associating all the sources of legitimacy which exist in Europe, deserves to be used for future amendments to the constitutional texts.

Finally, the European project should be clearly identifiable in a name. The Commission
considers that the term “European Union”, with which the citizens of Member States and candidate countries have grown familiar, encapsulates well the objectives of the European project. The Convention should give its opinion on a common device for the Union, which could be “Peace, Freedom, Solidarity”.

It is the Convention's job to visualise the European Union of tomorrow — a Union in which the Member States, united by common policies and brought together under strong institutions, will remain capable of overcoming their differences to meet the expectations of their peoples.

To read the document see: http://www.europa.eu.int/futurum/documents/offtext/com051202_en.pdf