Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-15-Speech-3-159"
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"en.20020515.8.3-159"2
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"Mr President, Secretary-General, in its resolution of 22 October 2001 on the reform of the Council, the European Parliament expressed the opinion that the proper operation of the Council is essential in order to guarantee the democracy, efficacy and coherence of the decision-making process in the enlarged Union. That resolution also condemned the present institutional drift away from the Community method, as well as numerous instances of the malfunctioning of working methods and of the way in which the Council operates.
The European Council in Barcelona last March finally tackled this recurring problem, though not without deciding, yet again, to postpone it to the European Council in Seville which is planned for June 2002. Nevertheless, we should welcome the fact that, in the meantime, the Blair-Schröder letter and the report by Mr Solana entitled ‘Preparing the Council for Enlargement’ have defined those questions which will require an answer before the next reform of the Treaty.
The proposal to lighten the agenda and to get the European Council to concentrate once more on its role of providing guidance and impetus, as laid down in the Treaty, is an initial step in the right direction, and I should like to thank the Secretary-General for having emphasised this important point in his speech. The restoration of the importance of the General Affairs Council and a radical reform of the way in which it operates are obviously the essential corollaries to a reform of the European Council. The Ministers for Foreign Affairs and/or European Affairs, of which it is composed, should work more and better. In other words they should meet more often and subject themselves to greater discipline. Instead of being interested solely in the CFSP, they should pay more attention to horizontal issues and should once again become the principal decision-making body and the principal body preparing for the European Council.
If the General Affairs Council – and I am delighted that the President of the Council is with us today, so that he can pass on the message to his colleagues – as I was saying, if the General Affairs Council does not pull itself together, it will sink into oblivion. It will be the Heads of State and Government who will take over everything, who will deal with everything, via their secretaries of state or other delegated ministers, and who will, in short, bypass the Community preparation process, including Coreper.
If this happens, make no mistake, the intergovernmental method will have triumphed and we can kiss the Community mechanism goodbye. That Community mechanism requires the Commission to propose and the European Parliament and the Council to dispose, all in the greatest possible transparency. In the draft resolution that we have in front of us, the two rapporteurs remind us of the principles which, according to the European Parliament, ought to inspire the reform of the Council, and they emphasise the fact that there is now an urgent need for action."@en1
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