| Author (Person) | Thomson, Ian |
|---|---|
| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning |
| Series Title | In Focus |
| Series Details | 3.3.01 |
| Publication Date | 03/03/2001 |
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus |
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An Intergovernmental Conference took place throughout 2000 to prepare for the institutional changes needed in the European Union to accommodate new members. Negotiations came to a conclusion at the European Council in Nice in December 2000 with the agreement of the text of a new treaty to adapt the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaties on the European Communities. Following a period to allow for linguistic and other checks the Treaty of Nice was formally signed in the French city on 26 February 2001. In a 'Declaration on the Future of the Union' attached to the Treaty of Nice the Intergovernmental Conference calls for a 'deeper and wider debate about the future development of the European Union', which should lead to a further Intergovernmental Conference in 2004 and a further treaty revision. The main issues to be looked at are:
European Sources Online: In Focus provides a background and description of the Treaty of Nice, plus a first look at the emerging debate on the future of the European Union. Treaty of Nice, 2001 The following article has been written by Timothy Bainbridge exclusively for European Sources Online. Hyperlinks to further sources from within European Sources Online and from external websites are listed below the article. The foundations of the Treaty of Nice, signed on 26 February 2001, were laid in the Treaty of Amsterdam, which annexed a 'Protocol on the institutions with the prospect of enlargement of the European Union' to the Treaty on European Union (TEU; the Maastricht Treaty) and the Treaties establishing the European Communities. The Protocol implicitly acknowledged that certain fundamental reforms to the institutions, essential to the success of enlargement, had not been included in the Treaty of Amsterdam and that another Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) (IGC) under Article 48 TEU would have to be convened 'at least one year before the membership of the European Union exceeds twenty' (Protocol, Article 2). In the event, however, because the institutional reforms had a direct bearing on the negotiations with the applicant states, the European Council meeting in Cologne in June 1999 decided to convene an IGC in 2000. The agenda for IGC 2000 was settled in Cologne and at the European Council meeting in Helsinki in December 1999. The main items were the so-called 'Amsterdam left-overs':
The Helsinki European Council also argued that the IGC itself would be the responsibility of Member States' foreign ministers, and that preparatory work would be undertaken by a group composed of representatives of Member States' governments and two members of the European Parliament. The involvement of the Parliament was to be further assured by regular contacts with the President of the Parliament. The Commission was to be involved at both the preparatory and the political level (the President-designate, Romano Prodi, had already received a report from a small group of independent experts, 'The Institutional Implications of Enlargement', published on 18 October 1999). IGC 2000 was formally opened on 14 February 2000. In addition to addressing the issues left unresolved in Amsterdam, IGC 2000 was given the task of drawing up other amendments to the Treaties made necessary by enlargement or by the need to ensure the smooth implementation of the Treaty of Amsterdam (which entered into force in May 1999). For this reason, the text of the Treaty agreed at Nice contains a large number of amendments on many different aspects of the Union's institutions and procedures. The Treaty falls into three parts:
Of the amendments to the Maastricht Treaty, three stand out as important. The amendments to the Treaty of Rome are characterised by a wide-ranging substitution of QMV for unanimity in Council decision-making and an extension of the Co-decision procedure as set out in Article 251 EEC. Most of these modifications apply to relatively minor matters: anti-discrimination measures (Article 13), financial assistance to Member States (Article 100), measures to enhance the Union's international competitiveness (Article 157), and appointments to the Court of Auditors (Article 247), for example. In more sensitive areas the introduction of QMV or co-decision is postponed: until May 2004 for decisions on refugees and asylum (Article 67), and until January 2007 for decisions on the Structural Funds (Article 161) and on financial regulations (Article 279). In other areas to which co-decision is extended, some aspects are specifically excepted: for example, passports and social security questions are not included in the application of co-decision to the free movement of persons provisions of Article 18. QMV is extended to the nomination of the President-designate of the Commission, subject to the assent of the European Parliament (Article 214). QMV is also to be used for the nomination of other members of the Commission 'by common accord' with the President-designate, the whole Commission being then submitted to the Parliament for its assent. Formal appointment then follows, again by QMV. Under Article 217 the position of the President is strengthened, notably by virtue of the provision in Article 217.4 that 'a Member of the Commission shall resign if the President so requests'. Amongst the other changes introduced by the Treaty of Nice are increases in the maximum size of the European Parliament (732 rather than 700 members, Article 189)2, limits on the size of the Economic and Social Committee (ESC) and the Committee of the Regions (350 members each, Articles 258 and 263), greater recognition of Transnational political parties (Article 191), and the creation of a Social Protection Committee (Article 144)3. The Official Journal becomes the Official Journal of the European Union (Article 254). The statute of the Court of Justice is revised and set out in a Protocol to be annexed to the Treaties. A Declaration calls for one European Council meeting in each Presidency to be held in Brussels with effect from 2002 and for Brussels to be the sole venue for such meetings as soon as the number of Member States reaches 18. The main Treaty reforms are set out in a 'Protocol on the enlargement of the European Union'. This Protocol, which repeals the similarly-entitled Protocol agreed in Amsterdam, reduces with effect from the beginning of the European Parliament's next term (July 2004) the number of members of the Parliament in every Member State except Germany and Luxembourg (Article 2 of the Protocol). The new total, 535 members, allows 197 seats to be filled by members from newly-acceding states up to the agreed maximum of 7322. However, a calculation is to be made in January 2004. From the total of 197 extra seats will be subtracted the seats allocated to those states which have by then signed accession treaties. The remaining seats will be shared out pro rata amongst the current Member States, bringing the total size of the 2004-2009 Parliament as close as possible to 732. The number of seats allocated to the applicant states are set out in a Declaration (see below). Article 3 of the Protocol recalculates the weightings attached to Member States' votes in the Council of Ministers (Article 205 EEC) to give a new total of 267 votes. A measure based upon a proposal from the Commission must secure 169 votes cast by at least a majority of the Member States to be adopted under QMV. Other measures must secure 169 votes cast by at least two-thirds of the Member States. In either case, any Member State may request verification that the votes cast in favour are cast on behalf of at least 62 per cent of the Union's population (i.e. about 230 million people): if this cannot be shown to be so, the measure is not adopted (see Double majority). A table in the Declaration which follows shows how this sytem will be adapted to successive enlargements. On the Commission, Article 4 of the Protocol provides for one Commissioner from each Member State with effect from 1 January 2005, up to a maximum of 26. Thereafter, 'the number [of Commissioners] shall be less than the number of Member States. [They] shall be chosen according to a rotation system based on the principle of equality ...' It is left to the Council, 'acting unanimously after signing the treaty of accession of the twenty-seventh Member State', to fix the number of Commissioners and decide upon a system of rotation. The Declaration which follows the Protocol sets out the Member States' 'common position' on the allocation of seats in the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions and the weighting of votes in the Council in a Union of 27 members (Turkey is not included in any of these calculations). Future developments are addressed in a 'Declaration on the future of the Union'. The Declaration calls for a 'deeper and wider debate about the future development of the European Union', and commits the Swedish and Belgian presidencies to encouraging 'wide-ranging discussions with all interested parties', including the applicant states. A report on these discussions will be made to the European Council meeting in Göteborg (June 2001) and final decisions on how the process is to be carried forward will be made at the European Council meeting in Laeken (Brussels) in December 2001. Four topics in particular have already been identified: the division of competences between European and national authorities, 'reflecting the principle of Subsidiarity'; the status of the It was not to be expected that IGC 2000 would deliver convincing, clear-cut answers to all the problems it was invited to address. In the trade-off between what is acceptable to the fifteen Member States and what is intelligible to the public, acceptability wins every time, however complex the compromise. No-one can really predict what the pressures on the Union's institutions and procedures arising from enlargement are likely to be, and therefore no-one can say what Treaty changes are needed to withstand them. More than ever, the Union is entering a period of trial and error with respect to its internal organisation. The Treaty of Nice must be regarded as a further chapter in the story which began with the Single European Act and continued with the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam. It will be seen in retrospect as an important chapter, as the occasion on which the Member States at last addressed what an engineer might think of as the load-bearing parts of the Treaties: how the Council takes decisions; the balance of power between large and small states; and the relations between the Union's institutions and national governments. No doubt the promise of a further IGC will help to ease the process by which the Treaty of Nice is to undergo Ratification in the Member States over the next two years. Notes: 1. Eurojust: Eurojust (more formally, the European Judicial Cooperation Unit) is the name given to a body 'composed of national prosecutors, magistrates, or police officers of equivalent competence, detached from each Member State' to be set up in accordance with a decision reached at the Tampere meeting of the European Council in October 1999. The Treaty of Nice provided the legal base for this in amendments to Articles 29 and 31 of the Treaty of Rome. Eurojust's role is 'facilitating the proper coordination of national prosecution authorities and ... supporting criminal investigations in organised crime cases ... as well as ... cooperating closely with the European Judicial Network' (Conclusions of the Tampere meeting, point 46) See also: 2. An article in European Voice, Vol.7, No.6, 15.2.01, p2 suggested that this might further increase to 736 to allow two further MEPs for the Czech Republic and Hungary. 3. Social Protection Committee: The Social Protection Committee is a new European Union body established by the Treaty of Nice under Article 144 of the Treaty of Rome. Possessing advisory status, its task is 'to promote cooperation between Member States and with the European Commission on social protection policies'. Each Member State and the Commission will have two representatives on the Committee. The Committee may tender advice either on its own initiative or at the request of the Commission or the Council of Ministers. See also: 4. European Judicial Network: The European Judicial Network was set up in June 1998 as a Joint action under Article K3 (now Article 34) of the Maastricht Treaty (Official Journal L191, 7 July 1998). It is a 'network of judicial contact points ... between the Member States'. These contact points are 'active intermediaries with the task of facilitating judicial cooperation ... particularly in action to combat forms of serious crime' (Article 4.1 of the joint Action). The Network, which is serviced by the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, meets occasionally in Brussels. See also: The Treaty of Nice was formally signed in Nice on 26 February 2001 at a low-key ceremony. The Treaty of Nice was formally published in the Official Journal C80, 10.3.01. What next for the European Union? As mentioned above attached to the Treaty of Nice is a 'Declaration on the Future of the Union' in which the Intergovernmental Conference calls for a 'deeper and wider debate about the future development of the European Union', which should lead to a further Intergovernmental Conference in 2004 and a further treaty revision. The main issues to be looked at are:
In reality, this debate had already begun during 2000 with contributions by various European leaders. This wider debate was launched by a speech by German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, in May 2000 and was followed by contributions by, amongst leading European leaders, President Chirac, Hubert Vedrine, Tony Blair, Romano Prodi, Guy Verhofstadt, Carlo Ciampi, Gerhard Schröder and Giuliano Amato, and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski. Since Nice there have been contributions given by Chancellor Schröder and Jacques Delors in January 2001. Nevertheless, the Treaty of Nice has formalised the call for a debate and laid down some form of timetable and mechanism. During 2001:
The Declaration goes on to say that a new Conference of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States (ie. an Intergovernmental Conference) will be convened in 2004 to make decisions on what changes are needed to the treaties. Some have suggested that in the meantime a form of 'Convention', made up of European Commission, Council of the European Union, and European Parliament representatives, and national Parliamentarians, should be established to create a draft Treaty. This idea stems from the 'Convention' that was set up to draft the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was 'proclaimed' (note, not 'adopted') by EU Member States at Nice in December 2000. The UK Government and others are against this suggestion fearing that the IGC in 2004 will be presented with a radical text as a fait accompli. Many of the information sources below in discussing the Treaty of Nice go on to begin the 'post-Nice' wider debate about Europe. Indeed, the considerable disappointment felt by many about the outcome of Nice has been mitigated by the realisation that the important debate is just about to begin. Further information within European Sources Online: European Sources Online: Topic Guide European Sources Online: In Focus (Links to external websites within In Focus features cannot be guaranteed) European Sources Online: European Voice European Sources Online: Financial Times Further information can be seen in these external links: (long-term access cannot be guaranteed) EU Institutions European Commission Fact Sheet: After the treaty of Nice. Other IGC 2000 Fact Sheets Treaty of Nice: Guide for the citizen European Commission: Press and Communication Service: Reactions from European Commission President and Commissioners: European Parliament: Various: Reactions from the European Parliament, Political Groups, Committee on Constitutional Affairs, and individual MEPs EP representatives on IGC: Overview of the results of the IGC, 19.12.00 Economic and Social Committee Committee of the Regions Member States Sweden United Kingdom France Germany Think tanks Centre for Economic Reform: European Policy Centre: Centre for European Policy Studies Civil Society / Stakeholders Union of Industrial and Employers Confederations of Europe (UNICE) European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) Academic London School of Economics: Voting Power Programme Harvard Law School ARENA Working Paper News sources BBC News: Irish Times EUobserver Further and subsequent information on the subject of this In Focus can be found by an 'Advanced Search' in European Sources Online by inserting 'Treaty of Nice' or 'Future of the Union' in the keyword field. Ian Thomson An Intergovernmental Conference took place throughout 2000 to prepare for the institutional changes needed in the European Union to accommodate new members. Negotiations came to a conclusion at the European Council in Nice in December 2000 with the agreement of the text of a new treaty to adapt the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaties on the European Communities. |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations |
