“The challenges that await us”

The future of the Eu and that of the Constitution; the Directive for the liberalization of the services sector; the Turkish question; relations between European institutions and citizens: these were just some of the issues debated during the plenary session of the European Parliament (13-16 November), which also provided an occasion to sound out the views of some of the protagonists of political life in Strasbourg and Brussels. MORE POWER TO PARLIAMENT. “If I should be elected as the New President of the European Parliament in January, I will campaign to ensure that the Berlin Declaration of 25 March 2007 on the future of integration be signed by the three institutions, namely, Parliament, Council and Commission, and not just by the heads of state and of government”, declared German Mep HANS-GERT POETTERING , currently head of the European People’s Party group within the EP. Poettering was explaining, albeit with due caution, his strategy to SIR . On 14 November his party, the largest in the Ep, chose him as its candidate for the Presidency of the European Parliament. The vote will take place on 16 January. The top post in the EP is held on a revolving basis for a term of two and a half years, half the length of the legislature: all the forecasts suggest that Poettering will succeed the current President, the Spaniard Josep Borrell. “I am convinced – explains Poettering – that the President of the Parliament ought to respect all MEPs and all the political positions they represent” and “dedicate himself to ensuring that the EP elected by citizens increases its political role within the EU”. CONSTITUTION AND TURKEY. After being chosen as its candidate by the EPP, the election of Poettering as President of the EP is now a real and imminent prospect. “I have behind me a 27-year-long experience as MEP and I have seen its powers grow bit by bit”, says the politician and lawyer, born at Bersenbrück (Lower Saxony) in 1945, listing the “challenges that await the Eu and the European Parliament itself”. “I would say that the legislative activity and the power of co-decision must be further extended. Second, I see the need to make all the European institutions more effective and hence closer to citizens. Third, it is essential that the Constitution be approved before the elections to the EP in 2009”. An opinion on Turkey? “If this huge country wants to form part of the Union, it will have to make significant steps towards Europe”. “XENOPHOBIC FORCES INCREASING”. Seven political groups, plus unaligned MEPs, are represented in the European Parliament: People’s Party, Socialists, Liberal Democrats, Greens, United Left, Independence and Democracy, Europe of Nations. After the EPP, the second largest group is that of the European Social-Democrats headed by the German MARTIN SCHULZ . He supports the candidate of his compatriot Poettering: “He’s an expert colleague and a man of his word. I agree with him about little, but I esteem him highly”. The Social-Democratic exponent is less flattering in his judgement of the Commission, which presented its own programme for 2007 in the course of the parliamentary session. “Barroso’s team has been in office for two years, but there’s little to celebrate about. The programme for next year too is just a rehash of what he has said before”. Schulz also puts the emphasis on other aspects of European policy: “The Services Directive we have approved is a good compromise, favouring the free market without undermining social protection and work”. He says he is “very worried by the growth of xenophobic and racist forces throughout the continent. It’s a grave signal we must not underestimate”. BARROSO? MIXED JUDGEMENT. “Some projects and successes of this Commission have filled me with enthusiasm, but other things I judge less positively”, comments GRAHMAN WATSON , head of the Liberal-Democratic group, explaining his judgement of the Barroso team. “We have to recognize that the Commission began its work two years ago at a particularly delicate moment, following the signing of the Constitution. Then there was the problem of its ratification and a general impasse in the progress of the EU. Among Barroso’s successes we can cite the Reach Directive” on chemical products “and that regarding the services sector”, recently approved by the EP. On the organization of the Assembly’s work, Watson says: “one plenary session per month for a duration of four days, plus a two-day mini-session, are not enough to be able to follow, with the necessary attention, the political developments taking place. I have proposed the addition of a session every Wednesday afternoon, after the meeting of the Executive, to reinforce dialogue with the college of Commissioners. But both the EPP and the EPS show no enthusiasm for the idea. To be more effective, we need to work more”.