"The debates in the Convention on Monday and Tuesday about the institutions of the EU were good for Europe", said Jo Leinen (PES), vice-president of the Constitutional Affairs Committee in the European Parliament. A majority of speakers (47 out of 77) rejected an elected president of the European Council. It would thus be a violation of the Convention if after this debate the idea of an elected president of the European Council were to reappear in the proposals of the president or the presidium of the Convention, emphasised Leinen. "More democracy" in the EU must be the message from the work of the Convention to Europe's citizens. President Giscard d' Estaing should now produce concrete text drafts which truely reflect the great majority in the Convention on the institutional issues.

Not only within the Convention but in the public at large the understanding grows that a dual head of the executive will create more problems than it will solve. Many Convention members have stated clearly that an elected president of the Council will be in direct competition with an elected president of the Commission. With the clear expression of opinion in the Convention the attempt to shift the balance of power in the European Union in favour of the intergouvernmental method and at the expense of the community method, is off the agenda.

In contrast, it is to be welcomed that the call for a Commission president elected by the European Parliament finds more and more support in the Convention. A large majority of Convention members is convinced of the necessity to enhance the Commission president's legitimacy by creating a more direct link between the Union citizens and the European executive.

"The election of the president of the Commission by the European Parliament is a corner stone of democratization in the European Union," stressed Leinen. In this there is hope that the European elections will become more attractive, European parties will emerge and truely European election campaigns will generate Europe-wide debates about the different proposals put forward by the parties.

Contact: jleinen@europarl.eu.int
See: www.joleinen.de