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Between the Lines: The EU's Growing PainsAuthor(s): Ian BlackSource: Foreign Policy, No. 123 (Mar. - Apr., 2001), pp. 76-77Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLCStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3183157 .

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BETWEEN THE LINES

The EU's Growing Pains The European Union's (EU) December 2000 summit in Nice, France, agreed on vital decision-making and insti-

tutional reforms needed to prevent paralysis when the 15-member club takes in 12 new members, mostly the

post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, in coming years. Stripped of their highly technical

detail, these changes were about raw power. For Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, the

summit outcome cruelly exposed the current dominance of big governments and weakness of the "suprana- tional" principle of European integration. His speech to the European Parliament made little attempt to

conceal his disappointment. I By Ian Black

Speech by Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, I! December o000oo

It lasted four grueling The December 2000 Nice European Council will be remembered as days and nights, end- The December 2000 Nice European Council will be remembered as

ing at 4:30 in the particularly lengthy, and particularly complex.... Britain and others monnadbcm Britain and others morning, and became opposed including eco-

the longest EU summit Nice was the venue for positive decisions, some of them long-awaited: nomic or social rights ever, with unusual diffi- in the charter, which culties in reaching final could undermine

agreement. German Solemn proclamation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.... national competitive- Chancellor Gerhard Some, including some in this House... consider it too weak, but... ness. Most opposed Schr6der complained ..

that he was "fed up" it was drafted... with a view to making it a legal standard. Par- incorporation of the t w edocument into the Nice with the haggling. liament and the Commission have already made it clear that they treaty because it might

intend to apply the Charter in full.... create new law.

Other achievements at Nice included endorsement of a strategy for EU enlargement, creation of a European food authority (hastened by crises like the outbreak of mad-cow disease), and an agreement to hold future

summits in Brussels to enhance its role as the capital of Europe. Prodi was unhappy about the failure to move more issues in the policymaking Council of the European Union from a system of unanimous voting to

majority voting under a formula roughly reflecting population weight. Unanimity is already difficult enough to achieve in an EU of 15 members. With 27, it would be almost impossible.

These include the EU Extending qualified majority voting...is a quantitatively impor- budget and court pro- tant move, because it has brought thirty or so new chapters

cedures. But many under this umbrella.... Qualified majority voting will increasingly changes were fairly - minor or significantly become the rule in the Council. Qualitatively, the same cannot Europe's "founding mino or ignficatlyEurope's "founding

qualified. Britain, be said. Little or no progress was made on cohesion, tax regu- father" Jean Monnet backed by Sweden, lation and social legislation, all sensitive areas...which came up would decry failure to

Luxembourg, andabnoveopwr Ireland, opposed against the intransigence of some Member States. ibandon veto powers

majority voting on all tral tenet of his com- tax matters. This... disappoints me, not just because of the short-term conse- munity method, in

quences, but because the attitude behind it shows a lack of open- which sovereignty is "pooled." Prodi dis- ness and understanding. Anyone who sees Europe merely as a likes the trend toward

"clearing house" to approach when necessary and to stay away "intergovernmental- from when it does not suit them, or when they have already got ism," whereby mem-

a great deal from it, is not just making an error of historical analy- rd states simtpe grck sis, but is cheating future generations.... tion a la carte.

76 FOREIGN POLICY

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Prodi regrets "deferred" progress on justice and home affairs, an EU preoccupation concerned largely with immigration issues. Germany, with more asylum seekers than any other member state, insisted on putting off

change until 2004. But Prodi was pleased with progress in other areas.

I would... like to thank... President Chirac and Lionel Jospin for mak- France accepted quali- fied majority voting for

ing it possible to end the main ambiguities affecting our commercial trade in services andg for Despite this agreement trade in services and on "enhanced coopera- policy. A good balance was struck between the legitimate concerns sur- commercial aspects of tion" or "flexibility," the rounding issues like cultural diversity, on the one hand, and efficient intellectual property

Nice treaty is hedged powers for negotiating with our trading partners, on the other. nbut insisted onexempt- with conditions ing cultural, audiovisual, demanded by euro-zone and educational servic-

holdouts Britain, Another source of satisfaction is the result in the field of enhanced es to protect its films Sweden, and Denmark. cooperation... a tool that is vital for the enlarged Union

.... firstly from Hollywood block-

In particular, Britain w m busters-a blow for EU opposed flexibility in to make it possible for countries that wish to work together more Trade Commissioner

defense for fear of closely towards major new common goals to do so, and secondly and Frenchman French efforts that to counter any risk of fragmentation that unregulated use of such Pascal Lamy.

could undermine NATO. cooperation might bring....

Prodi reviews reforms in the EU's three interlocking institutions: the commission, supranational guardian of the treaties and initiator of legislation; the council, where the 15 governments cooperate; and the 626-member

European Parliament, which is responsible for democratic scrutiny of the union's decision-making process.

The Commission will be able to grow to 26 members . . . These Prodi had wanted to

changes have been accompanied by the launching of major reform in reduce the size of the commission to make it

the way the Commission is organised. The President will be appoint- less unwieldy after ed by majority (not unanimous) vote.... The President will have the enlargement. But

power to dismiss Commissioners and will have a wide degree of dis- fierce opposition from France, Germany, cretion regarding the actual organisation of the Commission.... small states like

Italy, and the United r dg iFinland and Portugal Kingdom retained vot- and candidate coun-

ing parity, despite It was the weighting of votes in the Council that gave rise to the tries like Poland made Germany's 23 million most difficult discussion and decision.... The outcome was regret- that impossible. New edge in population- powers for the presi-

aedoge u opulaation- table for two reasons: firstly, because it made a qualified majority dent are intended to an outcome that high- lights France's histori- more difficult, and a blocking minority accordingly easier, where compensate.

cal insecurity over a the goal should have been the opposite in an expanding Union; sec- Germany whose power ondly, because it has made decision-making even more complex, reflects its post-unifi- s

cation size and eco- something that runs counter to the legibility and transparency for nomic weight. which the citizens have been calling....

Prodi pays tribute to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt for stubbornly demanding more votes for candidate countries. Verhofstadt's dramatic threat to walk out reflected angry criticism of the French

presidency's handling of the summit. Later, cooler appraisals suggested that the Nice reforms were just about, as one senior diplomat put it, "what the market could bear": agreeing to the minimum needed for

enlargement to proceed while displaying little appetite for future integration.

Nice was characterised by the efforts of many to defend their The declaration on the need for "wider

immediate interests, to the detriment of a long-term vision, and deeper debate" after Nice pleased

Nice does, however, include a declaration on the future of the integrationists push- ing for a clear defini-

Union, and this gives me some cause for optimism.... Like the Com- tion of the final shape munity structure itself, the process for producing institutional of the EU, so far an change is under stress, and needs to be changed. open-ended project.

Ian Black is the European editor of Great Britain's Guardian newspaper and is based in Brussels.

MARCH I APRIL 2001 77

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