[RIFORMANDO:544] EU 'must be federal state with elected president'

Dal Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000647321007942&rtmo=wAjAowQb&atmo=KKKKKKrM
&pg=/et/00/6/15/weu15.html
EU 'must be federal state with elected president'
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Strasbourg
 
THE European Commission is considering radical plans for an elected
president and a federal constitution to bind the European Union closer
together before the next round of enlargement.
Michel Barnier, the European commissioner in charge of reform, has given
warning that the EU will slide into crisis, becoming "unpopular", "useless"
and "incapable of decision-making" unless Europe's leaders rise to the
challenge and draft a visionary document as the basis for the next
constitutional treaty in December.

At a meeting with fellow commissioners in Strasbourg, M Barnier said the
status quo was not sustainable. The only question was whether the EU should
be a "federal" state in the conventional sense, modelled on the United
States or Germany, or whether it should pursue the goal of political union
through other means.

"Everybody knows that Europe's current institutions can't work with 30
countries," he told The Telegraph after the meeting. "If we can't find the
courage to change the mechanism, we're going to face a general blockage of
all EU activity. The British Government sees this too, and I'm confident
that they will accept the need for fundamental change in the end."

M Barnier insisted that he was speaking in a "personal capacity" at the
meeting, but his proposals have acquired a quasi-official status, as part of
the commission's working text for this year's Intergovernmental Conference. 

The plans buttress ideas put forward last month by Joschka Fischer, the
German Foreign Minister. M Barnier, a neo-Gaullist who has served as
France's minister for Europe, conceded that Britain would have "serious
difficulties" with his proposals for an abolition of the national veto in
"all areas of policy".

Under the plans, Britain would lose the veto in the fields of gender and
race discrimination, immigration and asylum and all tax policy and social
regulation "necessary for the proper functioning of the single market".
"What's the point of creating an economic world power if we deny it the
means to co-ordinate fiscal and social policy?" asked M Barnier. 

Britain has already drawn a line in the sand on the question of majority
voting, with a pledge to fight to preserve its veto over taxation, defence,
immigration and border controls. The Government has the power to block all
treaty changes but risks incurring the wrath of its EU partners if it uses
this too aggressively.

Francis Maude, the shadow foreign secretary, said the Barnier proposals
showed that "the EU superstate agenda is alive and well" and the Government
must "stop pretending". 

M Barnier said the creation of the euro entailed a "federal logic", arguably
requiring a new federal structure with a directly elected president and a
bicameral parliament with full legislative powers. It would also have a
"supreme court" to act as guardian of a "simple, clear constitution" that
all the children of Europe could learn by heart.

The revamped commission should have a directly elected president to give it
"democratic legitimacy", with a vice-president in charge of foreign policy
and defence and powers to dissolve the European Parliament.


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