WRITTEN QUESTION E-2037/00 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council. Proposal for a federation of nation states by the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
Date: 2000-06-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Germany, institutional reform, intergovernmental conference (EU), minister

13.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 81 E/131

dissuasive sanctions. According to Article 34(2)(b) (ex Article K.6) of the Treaty on European Union, the
Council may adopt framework decisions for the purpose of approximation of the laws and regulations of
the Member States which shall be binding upon the Member States as to the result to be achieved but shall
leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods and shall not entail direct effect. Within
the third pillar, textual uniformity could therefore at utmost be achieved in very exceptional cases.

in particular, as part of

The work of the Corpus juris (2) relating to the protection under criminal law of the Communities(cid:146) financial
interests was carried out by the University of Utrecht which received a Commission subsidy of €493 000
(experts, organisation, translation, publication). Part of the comparative study of the Corpus juris, approx.
2 000 pages long, has already been published (3). The Commission feels that there is a case for continuing
the work,
the Intergovernmental Conference. The aim is to enlighten the
Commission on the question of the European prosecutor, Here, the Honourable Member is referred to
the answer given by the Commission to Written Question E-2596/1999 by Mr Hannan (4), and to the
Commission Communication of 28 June 2000 (5). The Commission is preparing a further contribution to
its opinion relating to the Intergovernmental Conference on the protection of the Communities(cid:146) financial
interests, the anti-fraud campaign in order to adopt an overall strategic approach (6) which will include the
theme of protection under criminal
interests and the European
prosecutor.

the Communities(cid:146)

financial

law of

(1) COM(1999) 438 final.
(2) The Corpus juris is available on the Internet: http://www.law.uu.nl/wiarda/corpus/index1.htm.
(3)

Implementation of the Corpus juris in the Member States, Mr. Delmas-Marty/J.A.E Vervaele, Intersentia, Utrecht,
2000.

(4) OJ C 280 E, 3.10.2000, p. 79.
(5) COM(2000) 358 final.
(6) COM(2000) 34 final.

(2001/C 81 E/158)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2037/00

by Camilo Nogueira RomÆn (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(22 June 2000)

Subject: Proposal for a federation of nation states by the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer

Is the European Council considering the proposal made as part of the preparation of the IGC by the
German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, as regards extending the issues which might be covered by the
reform of Treaties scheduled for this year? Does the Council think that the reinforced cooperation
mechanism would legally permit, over and above cooperation on specific issues,
institutional reforms
such as Mr Fischer is proposing? Would the use of reinforced cooperation allow the setting-up, by only
certain Member States, of a government and a two chamber parliament duplicating the European Union(cid:146)s
Council, Commission and Parliament?

Reply

(10 October 2000)

The Honourable Member should be aware that the reflections made by Mr Joschka Fischer on extending
the issues which might be covered by the reform of the Treaties scheduled for this year were not addressed
either to the Council nor to the Intergovernmental Conference as such. His specific views have therefore
not been discussed. Indeed, it would be entirely inappropriate for the Council as an institution to comment
on the view of any individual member.

The Honourable Member is probably aware, moreover, that the Council has no role whatsoever in the
work of the Conference of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, and is therefore
unable to comment on work being undertaken by the Conference. The European Parliament, on the other
hand, has two observers who are closely involved in the work of the Conference at the preparatory level.