B4-0266/97

Resolution on the Intergovernmental Conference

The European Parliament,

A. whereas 40 years ago the negotiators of the Treaty of Rome sought to take one more step in the process of European integration by issuing a permanent call for peace, understanding, harmony and solidarity within the continent of Europe, based on primacy for the principles of freedom and democracy,

B. whereas the European enterprise has for some time been essentially a means of trade liberation but whereas it is now no longer possible to continue defining the people of Europe solely as consumers within a market but also, and principally, as citizens of a Union,

C. whereas on the occasion of this solemn commemoration the present Intergovernmental Conference should assume its full responsibilities in a Europe characterized by the ending of divisions and the need to lay down solid foundations for future enlargement,

The European Parliament,

1. Calls on the Conclave which will meet in Rome to provide the Dutch Presidency with the necessary political impetus to move forward the negotiations on the essential issues before the Intergovernmental Conference in accordance with the principles on which the Treaty of Rome is based and by ensuring that the men and women of Europe are placed at the heart of the project;

2. Reminds the Intergovernmental Conference that the content of the concept of citizenship must be considerably extended, in particular by incorporating basic social rights and a sound social dimension;

3. Confirms the content of its resolutions of 17 May 1995 on the functioning of the Treaty on European Union with a view to the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference - implementation and development of the Union ((OJ C 151, 19.6.1995, p. 56.)), of 13 March 1996 embodying (i) Parliament's opinion on the convening of the Intergovernmental Conference and (ii) an evaluation of the work of the Reflection Group and a definition of the political priorities of the European Parliament with a view to the Intergovernmental Conference ((OJ C 96, 1.4.1996, p. 77.)) and of 16 January 1997 on the general outline for a draft revision of the Treaties ((Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 1(b).)) and, in the light of developments in the debate within the Intergovernmental Conference, sets the following guidelines in the field of justice and home affairs, extension of the scope of qualified majority voting, codecision for the European Parliament and enhanced cooperation;

4. Stresses, in view of the current situation, the need for Article 129 of the EEC Treaty to be amended to increase substantially the Community's tasks and powers in respect of protection of health in order to provide the EU with a clear legal basis;

An area of freedom, justice and security

5. Recalls that the establishment of an effective area of freedom, justice and personal security is one of the main priorities of the Intergovernmental Conference with a view to extending the concept of European citizenship and fully establishing the free movement of persons; that this area must be based on the principles of freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and on rule of law, principles to which the Member States subscribe, with guarantees for democracy and an effective decision- making process as an essential adjunct;

6. Stresses that in order to ensure free movement of citizens and residents, and to improve protection of their rights and security at Union level, it is necessary to introduce at the same time the following in close association:

- qualified majority voting in the Council for acts adopted in this field;

- legislative codecision for, and full democratic accountability to, the European Parliament:

- judicial supervision by the Court of Justice;

7. Calls for the objectives to be given a Community dimension and the time limits for adoption of the measures to be made more precise, particularly those concerned with ways of combating drug trafficking, corruption, trafficking in women, sexual abuse of children, terrorism and other forms of international crime, and judicial and administrative cooperation in the civil and commercial spheres;

8. Does not accept the current approach concerning the Third Pillar and insists that the provisions of the new Treaty should allow full application of Article 7a providing for free movement of persons; rejects any proposal of listing in the Treaty a large number of conditions to be fulfilled before Article 7a comes into force; strongly criticizes the fact that this text does not provide a role for the European Parliament and the Court of Justice; urges the Dutch Presidency to submit proposals which also allow for adequate democratic and judicial control;

9. Strongly opposes and refuses the proposal by the Dutch Presidency to delete sexual orientation, age and disability from the anti-discrimination Article as put forward by the Irish Presidency;

10. Strongly opposes the Dutch Presidency proposal concerning equality between women and men and calls for the introduction of the co-decision procedure in this matter;

11. Calls for the introduction of provisions instituting a common base for the description of offences and penalties, which would also facilitate the recognition and execution of court decisions, as well as mutual judicial and penal assistance;

12. Recommends that a specific legal basis be established in respect of action to combat fraud perpetrated against the financial interests of the Community through the provision of a basic set of common substantive and procedural penal laws;

Participation by the European Parliament in decisions of the Union; scope of application of majority decision-making in the Council

13. Stresses that citizens demand better democratic legitimation and accountability of decisions at European level and hence a simplified, equal right of codecision for Parliament must be extended to the entire scope of normal Community legislation, while decisions of a fundamental nature and international treaties must be subject to Parliament's assent; at all events, Parliament must discharge its duties, in terms of supervision of the executive, commensurate with any representative democratic institution;

14. Draws attention to the importance of the procedure laid down in Article 228(3); considers that Parliament's assent in respect of agreements creating a specific institutional framework by organizing cooperation procedures, agreements with significant financial implications for the Community budget and agreements involving an amendment to an act adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b constitutes an essential democratic guarantee; opposes any challenge to these provisions which might undermine democratic procedures laid down in the Treaty and which would represent an unacceptable step backwards;

15. Notes with concern that the concepts discussed hitherto in the Conference do not do proper justice to these demands but, on the contrary, in a number of important areas involve the risk of weakening democratic legitimation and control by Parliament;

16. Repeats its views that the Community decision-making procedures designed for six Member States are urgently in need of reform, particularly in view of the forthcoming enlargement, such that the principle of qualified majority voting in the Council is extended to the full range of normal legislation and only decisions of a fundamental nature require unanimity;

17. Calls on the Conference to adopt a constructive approach to the proposals that have been made in this respect and, in particular, to apply the principle of the reversal of the burden of proof whereby exceptions from qualified majority votes need to be justified individually and such exceptions are enumerated;

18. Calls on the Conference, when considering reforms of the current system of weighting votes in the Council, not to impede the decision-making process by raising the threshold required for a qualified majority and to take appropriate account of the interests of the smaller Member States;

Enhanced cooperation

19. Notes its resolution of 28 September 1994 on a multi-speed Europe ((OJ C 305, 31.10.1994, p. 52.)), in which it stressed its preference for a Union in which all Member States and all citizens have equal rights and obligations, and stresses that enhanced cooperation should only be envisaged if the conditions enabling progress to be made at the same time and in a unitary fashion do not exist; its purpose must be to enable the large majority of Member States who wish to do so to fulfil the objectives set for itself by the Union by working within the Treaties and giving a decisive role to the Community institutions with a view to future participation by all the Member States of the Union;

20. Notes that recourse to enhanced cooperation procedure must, if the institutional unity and the objectives of the Union are not to be compromised, be seen as a measure of last resort, to be regarded as an exception to the rule of unitary progress, limited by principles and very strict basic conditions and procedures, including:

- respect for the institutional framework;

- the maintenance and development of the acquis communautaire;

- the absence of distortions in the operation of the internal market;

- respect for the principle of the equality of all Member States and citizens of the Union;

- respect for the principles of solidarity and economic and social cohesion;

- the fact of its being a measure of last resort;

- the provision of assistance, aimed at promoting solidarity, to countries wishing to participate, in order that they may satisfy the objective criteria;

- in principle, its transitional nature, providing for the right of non- participants to participate at a later date;

- the guarantee of the rights and interests of non-participants;

- legislative codecision by the European Parliament;

- codecision by the European Parliament in respect of utilization of the budget of the Union;

21. Takes the view that enhanced cooperation must represent added value in relation to the acquis communautaire and must necessarily preclude any idea of 'Europe à la carte';

22. Considers that there should be no enhanced cooperation in the first pillar if the IGC makes the necessary extension to qualified majority voting; if this is done, enhanced cooperation would become unnecessary in respect of policies in the Community domain, but if unanimity is maintained in any field, enhanced cooperation would be the only way to avoid paralysis; stresses, however, that such a solution would entail numerous difficulties, especially where legislation is concerned, and that the IGC must give priority to extending qualified majority voting (and codecision on legislation);

23. Refuses to accept that the introduction of enhanced cooperation mechanisms in the Treaty should be used as a let-out by Member States tempted to evade the question of deepening the Union or to see the introduction of such mechanisms as an adequate response to the challenge of enlargement;

24. Affirms that joint actions in the case of foreign policy must be based on common objectives and shared interests; believes therefore that it is essential that opportunities to block decisions are substantially reduced by changes to the relevant voting rules and the use of enhanced cooperation is facilitated through specific provisions in primary legislation; acknowledges in the areas of cooperation in justice and home affairs that if the Intergovernmental Conference fails in the task of full communitization, the application of enhanced cooperation, subject to the criteria and procedures enumerated in this resolution, could further the development of the process of integration;

25. Takes the view that the mechanisms for the implementation of enhanced cooperation should take the form of a request from Member States followed by assent from the Commission (except in the case of CFSP), or of an initiative from the Commission, in either case decided by a qualified majority in the Council with the assent of Parliament; stresses the opportunities for tactical blocking which maintaining the principle of unanimity would give some Member States, even if it were limited to the Member States actually or allegedly concerned by the planned proposal;

26. Stresses that the budgetization of the financial impact of enhanced cooperation must respect the principle of the unity of the budget and not adversely affect the provisions relating to the budgetary procedure or the functioning of other operative financial mechanisms; recommends that, for financing measures implemented under enhanced cooperation, the following budgetary principles be adopted:

- the charging of general administrative expenditure to the Community budget;

- approval of such appropriations by the Council and Parliament;

- approval by the Council, by a qualified majority of the Member States concerned, of the revenue, the latter being provided by increasing the contributions of those Member States on the basis of their GNP;

27. Reaffirms, in the context of enhanced cooperation, the indivisible nature of the European Parliament as an institution representing all the Union's citizens, like the Commission and the Court of Justice;

28. Condemns the proposal laid down in the Dutch Presidency non-paper to restrict voting in the European Parliament on matters subject to an enhanced cooperation procedure to those elected in the participating Member States;

29. Reminds the Intergovernmental Conference that it is appropriate to incorporate in the Treaty the principles governing the uniform electoral procedure as well as the legal basis establishing that the European Parliament shall lay down in a statute the general conditions for the exercise of its Members' mandate, on the understanding that it will adopt this statute by a majority of its Members, after receiving an opinion from the Commission and with the approval of the Council acting by a qualified majority, without prejudice to the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities;

30. Instructs its President to forward the wishes of the European Parliament's delegation to the Interinstitutional Conference to the members of the European Council, on the basis of the 1991 procedure, so that Parliament may make the best possible contribution to the June 1997 European Council in Amsterdam;

31. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council Presidency, the Intergovernmental Conference, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Commission and the other Community institutions.