Social Europe and powers of the Regions: issues debated by the 14th session of the Convention” “
“The gravity of the international events has pushed into second place some of the points on the agenda”: so said Valery Giscard d’Estaing in opening the press conference that closed the 14th plenary session of the Convention on the future of Europe. Social Europe and the powers of the Regions, the two key issues on the agenda, were in effect obscured by the Iraqi crisis but more especially due to the presentation by the Presidium of the Convention of the draft of the first sixteen articles of the future European Constitution (the term “constitutional Treaty”, hitherto used, no longer appears). Social Europe. The Convention examined and approved the report of the workgroup “Social Europe” chaired by Giorgos Katiforis, MEP and representative of the Greek government. Wide consensus having been registered on the values and objectives of social policy (including human dignity, social justice, solidarity, promotion of full employment, social market economy and quality of work), it seems now confirmed that the Union will have responsibilities for the support of the national policies of member states in the social field; the only new function to be assumed by the Union, and shared with member states, in this field will probably concern public health. The debate within the Convention will focus in future on the procedures for the exercise of these functions, in particular on the extension of qualified majority vote to sectors on which the reluctance of governments to abandon their right of veto is well known. Regions. The debate on the Regions focused on three main points: the need to formally recognize the existence of the Regions in the future Constitution; the reform of the composition and consultative role of the Committee of the Regions (CR); and the possible extension of the right to appeal to the European Court of Justice, to the Regions and/or to the territorial units in case of violations of the principle of subsidiarity. Giscard’s position is that it is up to the Constitutions of the individual member states to define the role and responsibilities of the Regions: the procedures for their participation in the EU decision-making process and their right to appeal to the Court of Justice would in this way be regulated by domestic law within the member states, which the EU would have to respect. The general consensus that emerged in the Convention suggests, on the other hand, that the Committee for the Regions ought to have the right to present legal actions to the Luxembourg Court, though without becoming a Institution of the Union with full powers (concerns on this score were expressed by the chairman of the CR, the English socialist Albert Bore, mayor of Birmingham). Lastly, members of the Convention intend to insert in the future Constitution clauses that would oblige the EU Institutions to take the views of the CR into consideration.
