Giscard's EU reform plans slammed

The European Commission and European Parliament fired angry broadsides yesterday at proposals for a permanent European Union chairman by the elder statesman drafting a constitution for an enlarged EU.

The attacks sharpened a struggle for power in the 15-nation bloc, set to be joined by 10 acceding countries in May 2004, in the final weeks of a Convention on the Future of Europe due to present a draft constitution to EU leaders in June.

The EU's big five - Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain - all favour a permanent president for the EU to replace the six-monthly rotation of the presidency among member states, widely criticised as a source of inefficiency and weakness.

But the idea is fiercely opposed by the majority of smaller countries, the federally-minded parliament and the executive commission, which fears such a figure would sap its authority.

The Brussels-based Commission said the blueprint for reform of EU institutions outlined by former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who heads the Convention, would create rival bureaucracies and undermine accountability and effectiveness.

"Increasing the number of presidents and vice-presidents, setting up a bureau, can only bring confusion. Duplication of bureaucracies goes against common sense and against indications coming from all sides," the EU executive said in a statement.

The Commission charged that Giscard's plan would proliferate executive powers, failed to answer the "who does what" question in an enlarged EU, could lead to unequal treatment of member states and would jeopardise trust between them.

For the European Parliament, senior Christian Democrat Elmar Brok condemned the proposals as "autistic".

"This is purely about reducing the powers of smaller EU countries, the Commission and the European Parliament," he said.

The backlash occurred on the eve of a crucial debate on the future shape of EU institutions in the 105-member Convention.

Convention sources said Giscard's proposals seemed likely to be significantly amended by the 13-member Convention presidium, which was meeting behind closed doors yesterday, before a plenary session today and tomorrow.

Eighteen of the 25 present or future member states rejected a permanent EU president at a summit in Athens last week, but Giscard said the big countries which support the idea represent a majority of citizens. The 10 future members are mostly former communist East European states.

Giscard's plan called for a permanent chairman, chosen by EU leaders for a two-and-a-half-year term, to chair and prepare summits of the bloc to replace the six-month rotation of the EU presidency among member states.

The chairman would represent the EU externally at head of state level but would not have executive powers.

He also proposed appointing a vice-chairman to head the bloc's policy-making General Affairs Council and an EU foreign minister to conduct a common foreign and security policy.

Giscard suggested a new seven-member bureau should coordinate EU business, composed of the chairman, vice-chairman and foreign minister, plus two serving EU leaders chosen by rotation and the chairmen of two key policy-making councils on economic policy and justice and home affairs.

But the Commission said: "The Union does not need power to be concentrated in the hands of an intergovernmental 'bureau'."

Monica Frassoni, co-president of the Greens group in Parliament, said Giscard's proposals were "a slap in the face for European democracy".

"The European Commission and the European Parliament would see their role reduced to being mere appendices of an over-powerful European Council (of member states)," she said.