EU: The Convention on the Future of Europe has withheld its support for Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's latest plan to reform the EU institutions, writes Denis Staunton in Brussels
A plenary session yesterday broke up after one hour to allow convention members to discuss the proposals within their component groups of national government representatives, national parliamentarians and MEPs.
The draft articles published yesterday are based on a deal agreed with convention members last Friday, but many representatives remain unhappy with the text.
It foresees the appointment of a full-time president of the European Council, where EU leaders meet, with the chair of sectoral councils such as meetings of finance and agriculture ministers rotating every year.
The Commission would have a college of 15 members, including the Commission president and an EU foreign minister.
Those countries not represented in the college would nominate "non-voting commissioners", and voting rights would be rotated every five years on the basis of equality between member-states.
Voting weights in the Council of Ministers would remain unchanged until January 1st, 2009, when a qualified majority would be defined as a majority of member-states representing 60 per cent of the EU's population.
The Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, said the Government had reservations about some of the wording in the draft articles and sought clarification of the rotation system to be adopted in the sectoral councils. But he expressed broad satisfaction with the shape of the agreement on the institutions.
"Some of the dire things that could have happened didn't happen. There are certainly improvements that could be carried in, but they are very minor and are more by way of clarification than anything else," he said.
Mr Roche said that the EU's smaller states had succeeded in improving on the Nice Treaty in terms of representation in the Commission, and the Government was now prepared to agree to the appointment of a president of the European Council.
"The text really gives this new, full-time president the same role as the rotating president has. There's nothing new. I don't think there's any institutional change of such moment that we should oppose it. My view is that we shouldn't oppose it, we should accept it," he said.
A spokesman for the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, said yesterday that the proposals would weaken the Commission and change the balance between EU institutions.
"The model proposed in the text will ensure that the Commission is weaker vis-à-vis the European Parliament and member-states," he said.
Mr David O'Sullivan, one of the Commission's representatives at the convention, told The Irish Times that, although the latest draft was an improvement on earlier reform proposals, there were a number of important areas of concern.
"We're not happy with the level of qualified majority voting. We're not happy with the degree of clarity about the role of the president of the European Council. We're not happy with the definition of the Commission's role. And we're not very happy with the composition of the Commission, which doesn't seem to be a very workable outcome. It frankly risks making the Commission a rather difficult place to run," he said.
The convention is due to complete its work tomorrow, and Mr Giscard is expected to present a final text of the draft constitution to EU leaders in Thessaloniki next week. He suggested yesterday that the convention might meet once in July to resolve any final drafting issues before an Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) convenes in the autumn.
Mr O'Sullivan said that, despite the Commission's reservations, the convention had achieved a great deal and he suggested that the role of the IGC should be a limited one.
"I certainly don't think the IGC should start again. It should look and see what are the bits where further improvements can be made," he said.