PREPARING THE EU FOR 2004 by Heather Grabbe
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The debate about the future of Europe is supposed to consider how the Union will function after enlargement. In practice, the agenda set at Laeken addresses longstanding institutional problems, but does not pay sufficient attention to the qualitative changes that enlargement will bring.
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Before 2004, the EU urgently needs to reform the European Council, the rotating presidency, and the organisation of its foreign policy-making. It should also increase the involvement of national parliaments. The Union should produce a short and clear constitutional document to set out its aims and explain the added value of European integration, for the benefit of its current citizens and those that are soon to join.
Debating the future of Europe To prepare for the inter-governmental conference of 2004, the Laeken European Council established a Convention to debate the future of the Union for a year from March 1st 2002. By the end of 2002, reform will become more urgent, because negotiations with the members-to-be will be close to conclusion. The Laeken declaration set out a long list of questions for the Convention to answer (see box on page 2), with an agenda so broad that it is hard to see what exactly the Convention will focus on. The danger is that it will end up debating abstract points of principle, rather than the concrete problems that the enlarged Union will face. The debate could also be incoherent owing to the number of voices competing to be heard. The Convention will have 113 representatives from both current member states and the candidate countries – from governments, national parliaments, the European Parliament and the Commission. The chair, former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, will have to give a very strong steer if the Convention is to produce some useful results rather than degenerate into a talking-shop. The Laeken agenda is dominated by traditional remedies for long-standing problems, rather than the new challenges that enlargement will bring. There are some familiar refrains, for example, the suggestion of more qualified majority voting to ease decision-making, and enhancing the role of the Commission and the European Parliament in foreign policy and
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