A superpower but not a superstate
By Lisbeth Kirk
British Prime Minister Tony Blair held his speech of the European future Friday at the Polish Stock exchange in Warsaw. Blair voiced the vision of a European superpower, but not a superstate. He also welcomed new member states to participate in the European parliamentary elections in 2004 and to have a seat at the table at the next IGC.
Tony Blair described two possible models for Europe.
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‘One is Europe as a free trade area, like NAFTA in North America. This is the model beloved by British Conservatives. The other is the classic federalist model, in which Europe elects its Commission President and the European Parliament becomes the true legislative European body and Europes principal democratic check.’
Then he expressed his visions of a third model in which the European Council should play a more important role and a Second Chamber of the European Parliament would be created.
‘The European Council should above all be the body which sets the agenda of the Union. Indeed, formally in the Treaty of Rome, that is the task given to it’.
‘Just as governments go before their electorates and set out their agenda for the coming years, so must the European Council do the same. We need to do it in all the crucial fields of European action: economic, foreign policy, defence, and the fight against cross-border crime. I am proposing today an annual agenda for Europe, set by the European Council,’ Mr. Blair said in Warsaw.
The British Prime Minister said enhanced cooperation is an instrument to strengthen the Union from within, not an instrument of exclusion. But it must operate within the framework of the European treaties, he emphasized.
'Efficient decision making in an enlarged Union will also mean more enhanced cooperation. I have no problem with greater flexibility or groups of member states going forward together. But that must not lead to a hard core; a Europe in which some Member States create their own set of shared policies and institutions from which others are in practice excluded. Such groups must at every stage be open to others who wish to join.'
‘The difference now is that we must, from the beginning, operate within the framework of the European treaties, not outside it. Italy and Germany have suggested joint police operations at the Unions external borders. That kind of cooperation between groups of countries seeking to achieve goals agreed by all, and in the interests of all, will become common place,’ said Tony Blair.
Finally the British PM proposed the creation of a second chamber of the European Parliament and a charter of competences to define what should be done at the national level and what is to be done at a European level.
‘We should decide what is best done at the European level and what should be done at the national level, a kind of charter of competences. This would allow countries too, to define clearly what is then done at a regional level. This Statement of Principles would be a political, not a legal document. It could therefore be much simpler and more accessible to Europe’s citizens.
I also believe that the time has now come to involve representatives of national parliaments more on such matters, by creating a second chamber of the European Parliament.
A second chamber's most important function would be to review the EU's work, in the light of this agreed Statement of Principles. It would not get involved in the day-to-day negotiation of legislation - that is properly the role of the existing European Parliament’.
Tony Blair also said, he wants new member states to participate in the European parliamentary elections in 2004 and he would like them to have a seat at the table at the next IGC.