Last commitments for 2006

High on the agenda of the European summit on 14-15 December are the imminent accession of Bulgaria and Romania, future enlargements with the thorny question of Turkey, immigration policy and the future of the European Constitution. The meeting of the heads of state and of government of the EU comes at the culmination of a period of ferment in the “common home”, wrestling with contingent problems and more far-reaching decisions that concern the “Community gamble” as a whole. TURKEY: YES OR NO? The political debate became more febrile last week when the government in Ankara announced its willingness to open for a year one Turkish port and one airport to Greek-Cypriot merchandise. The attitude might suggest that Turkey is for the first time willing to contemplate the full recognition of the sovereignty of Nicosia, a necessary condition for Turkey to continue its process of rapprochement with the EU. To other commentators, however, the move seemed to be a mere ploy to avoid the albeit partial suspension of membership negotiations. Days of intensive negotiations followed Ankara’s announcement, including the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the 25 held on Monday, 11 December. In actual fact the move of the Erdogan government was received with some degree of scepticism by EU leaders. According to Finnish Premier MATTI VANHANEN , current President of the EU Council, “Turkey has failed to say enough”, in response to Europe’s request for Ankara’s real willingness to satisfy all the criteria to be able to become a member of the EU, including recognition of the Republic of Cyprus. For his part the Commissioner for Enlargement OLLI REHN recalled that “our recommendation on Turkey is still on the table”, alluding to the document by which the Executive had invited the Council to suspend 8 of the 35 chapters comprised by the accession negotiations. Any decision on the negotiations with Turkey has now been deferred to the summit of the 25, which will also give the official welcome to Bulgaria and Romania; both countries will become members of the Union on 1st January 2007. THE WORK OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT. The prospects for future enlargements of the EU and negotiations with Turkey also had repercussions at Strasbourg, where the plenary session of the European Parliament is now in progress (11-14 December). A debate in view of the summit in Brussels was also inserted in the order of the day. At the same time MEPs were called to proceed to the nomination of the Commissioners designated to represent Bulgaria and Romania in the Executive from January next year. The Bulgarian Meglena Kuneva will be responsible for Consumer Protection, while the Romanian Leonard Orban will become Commissioner for Multilingualism. Other questions on the agenda of the EP: the Directive on chemical substances (Reach); the Directive “TV without frontiers”; the protection of minors from audiovisual productions and Internet sites; and a solemn session for the presentation of the Sakharov Prize to Alexander Milinkevich, leader of the Belarussian opposition. FUTURE OF THE EU. Also at Strasbourg, the second Forum on the future of Europe was recently held, a joint initiative of the European Parliament and national parliaments. It was attended by some 200 delegates, including MPs, experts on Community questions and representatives of civil society. At the end of the meeting wide consensus was registered on the need to reach a new constitutional deal by 2009, prior to the next elections of the EP. According to the majority of participants, the draft Constitution must be the basis of discussions on future institutional changes, thus avoiding the scrapping of the text approved and already ratified by the majority of EU member states. With the latest ratification of Finland and the entry into the Union of Romania and Bulgaria, which took on board the Constitution at the time of signing their accession Treaties, the countries that have accepted the Constitution rises to 18, representing 56% of the EU population. The President of the EP JOSEP BORRELL declared that the Forum has “prepared the ground to enable the future German Presidency to find a solution to the constitutional impasse”. Various positions and emphases emerged during the debate. German MEP ELMAR BROK , chairman of the external relations commission, recalled the need for “greater solidarity between member states”, maintaining that “we must act in unison because that’s the only way to reach the hearts of citizens”. The chairman of the constitutional affairs commission, he too German, JO LEINEN , said he was favourable to “preserving the substance” of the existing Constitution, while at the same time being “flexible about its form. Re-negotiating the text makes no sense after 18 ratifications”. According to Czech MEP JAN HAMACEK , on the other hand, “we cannot ignore the views of France and Holland”, while Danish MEP Jens-Peter BONDE said “the best solution would be to re-negotiate the entire text”.