Jansa Says EU Summit Clears Ground for Slovenian Presidency
Prime Minister Janez Jansa has welcomed the compromise on a reform treaty EU leaders reached early on Saturday, saying it is good for Slovenia in particular because it in a way clears the ground for its presidency next year.
"Agreement has been reached on a reform treaty and thereby a decision for an intergovernmental conference. This will be called by the Portuguese presidency as foreseen on 23 and 24 July and the work on the text will start at once," Jansa said after two days of tough talks in Brussels. "The mandate is theoretically closed so that the conference is expected to complete its work by the end of 2007 at the latest." Jansa added that the Portuguese presidency would try to have the work finished at the informal summit on 18 and 19 October.
In Jansa's words, the compromise means the EU is getting a "content that is not essentially different from the constitutional treaty". Slovenia is one of the 18 member states to have endorsed the treaty and has consequently advocated keeping as much of its content intact.
"All key institutional solutions remain...the treaty keeps the entire value foundations of the EU," Jansa said and added that "some symbolic elements will be cleared up and some formulations toned down". Even the compromise reached with Poland "does not take the key weight away from the EU".
The compromise with Poland means the principle of double majority will not be put into effect until 2014, while even beyond that date, any member state can request decision-making on the basis of the Nice Treaty should it find it necessary to do so, Jansa explained.
He is upbeat about Slovenia's spell as EU president, saying the optimistic scenario is the country can look forward to "cheerful working atmosphere in the EU, where the main problem will have been solved".
On the negative note, the conference may drag on into Slovenia's term; although this is formally impossible it cannot be ruled out, given the discussions so far, Jansa said.
In a slightly harsher tone, the chair of the parliamentary EU Affairs Committee said in Ljubljana the agreement on a reform treaty was the victory for the countries that had not pushed for their "egotistic interests".
Anton Kokalj explained in a statement for STA that five or six countries manged to get what they had set out to demand. "In a way I could say all other member states were the hostages of these five, six countries in their demands and have made concessions to them on behalf of the common future."
While Anton Kokalj believes the agreement to give the IGC the mandate for a reform treaty is only the beginning of work, he maintains that the compromise reached at the EU summit resolved "key dilemmas for the next ten years at least".
Slovenia had no specific interests in the negotiations on the new treaty or later, which is why it does not find one or the other form essentially different or contentious.
"What this means for Slovenia is but that it will have to work along at the IGC very intensively and get ready in case the whole thing drags on into our stint. Otherwise, this means Slovenia will have to ratify a new treaty, which is no longer a constitutional but rather a reform treaty."
Kokalj finds it good in principle that national parliaments will get more say than so far. "I'm certain national parliaments will not abuse this and I believe this will make them and member states more involved with the citizens."
The MP was quick to add though, that national legislatures will nevertheless not have "any drastic influence or the power to block" decisions.
Head of the European Commission Representation in Slovenia too believes the agreement is a good starting point for the bloc to get a good, firm treaty that will enable it to operate more effectively in areas such as climate change, the Lisbon Strategy, energy policy and to ensure its internal and external security.
Mihela Zupancic told STA the summit attained the goal that EU leaders set at their informal meeting on the EU's 50th anniversary in Berlin in March by giving a precise mandate for the completion of the institutional reform and confirming the commitment to put the reform into effect by 2009, that is ahead of the Euro elections.
In doing so, Zupancic said the summit proved the "credibility of the enlarged EU", considering this is the first agreement over the institutional reform to be reached within the EU 27.
The new treaty will no longer be called a constitution, but the EU official believes the substance is more important than the form.
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