I welcome this opportunity to talk about the Convention and developments in that regard. Our meeting today is particularly opportune in that the Convention is in its final week. We will have a final document within the next seven to ten days for presentation at the meeting of the European Council in Thessalonika.
It might be useful to recall the way the Convention was established and what it set out to do. It was asked to establish a more precise delimitation of powers between the European Union and member states, reflecting, in particular, the principle of subsidiarity. It was also asked to examine the status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, proclaimed at Nice, and how it could be incorporated into a future constitutional treaty. It was asked to simplify the treaties with a view to making them clearer, more understandable and easier to read without changing their meaning. It was also asked to examine the role of national parliaments in terms of the European architecture. It has gone a long way towards achieving these aims.
I strongly believe the Convention has been a success to date. As a result of its work, the European Union will be much better equipped to meet the challenges and take the opportunities enlargement will bring. It will also be much better equipped as a result of the work of the Convention to meet the expectations of citizens of the Union.
The new draft is in four parts. Part I represents the "constitutional" elements, the broad principles of how the Union operates and its values, objectives and institutional framework. This part is the constitutional heart of the new treaty. Part II contains the Charter of Fundamental Rights and is a stand-alone part. It will contain the charter which will incorporate the horizontal provisions. While we are still finalising the details, we expect it will also include a bridging reference to commentary on the charter. Part III contains the detail of the Union's policies while Part IV sets out the general and final provisions, especially regarding ratification and future amendment.
There is no doubt that the draft produced is simpler than previous treaties. Its structure is clear and much more comprehensible. The new constitutional treaty will contain much that should be welcomed by citizens. The convention has worked hard to address the evident disconnection between the European Union and its citizens. The aims and objectives of the Union are set out clearly and more concisely than has been the case heretofore. Decision-making is to be simplified greatly while the number of legislative instruments will be dramatically reduced. I remind the House that an incredible 15 separate legislative instruments are used by the European Union. When the new constitutional treaty takes effect, there will only be five.
The fundamental nature of the European Union as a union of states and peoples is underlined and maintained. There has been no significant shift in competence, but the division of competence between member states and the Union has been made clearer. The role of national parliaments in the life of the Union has been recognised and they will be given an enhanced role in monitoring respect for the principle of subsidiarity. I was disappointed to some degree in this area in that I also hoped they would play a key role in the election of the President of the European Commission. These are changes that I believe will be welcomed in the House.
The Convention proposes the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the constitutional treaty. Much work has been done by the Government in the Convention to clarify the scope and application of the charter, to ensure its incorporation confers no new competencies and that it applies only to the EU institutions and member states and only when implementing EU law. It will not affect the domestic legal orders of member states. This is an important issue in Ireland.
With only a week remaining to conclude its work, much of the focus has been on trying to resolve the outstanding institutional questions. The leader of the Convention has been criticised for leaving institutional matters to a very late stage. We all recognise a political tactic when we see it. Throughout the convention process, the Government tried to be flexible and open to change as long as the key principles of balance and equality were respected. We worked closely with partners in the Convention to achieve this balance.
As the House will recall, there was much criticism of the original proposals on the institutions brought forward by the Praesidium. They did not meet the key tests of equality between member states and decidedly did not meet the key test of balance between the institutions. While we have yet to see final texts, the latest proposals seem to be a considerable improvement and go a long way towards rectifying the imbalances in the original and earlier draft texts. They also retain most of what was agreed in the Treaty of Nice a short time ago.
Equality of access to the membership of the European Commission has been guaranteed. This is the single most important result of the negotiations in the past seven days. While it is proposed that there will be 15 voting members within the Commission rotating on the basis of strict equality as defined in the Nice treaty, all member states will be entitled to have a nominee in the Commission. It is important to emphasise this point because naysayers in this country are trying to persuade us that black is white and words mean something other than what they mean. Equality means equality and translates into all the working languages of the Community. There are some wording issues on which we are still negotiating. The Leader knows this is one of the reasons I am anxious to travel to Brussels this evening.
While it looks as though there will be a long-term elected president of the European Council, his or her functions are to be so defined as not to cut across those of the Commission. This is a particularly important point. If the institutional balance is to be retained, some of the more exotic ideas about a crossover between the presidency of the Commission and the Council and vice versa would have to be avoided.
The principle of rotation in other formations of the Council, the so-called Council of Ministers sector meetings, is set to be inscribed in the new constitutional treaty. This is important as the idea of rotation in the Council of Ministers is fundamental in illustrating equality to citizens in a clear and recognisable way. I argued strongly in favour of this, as did a majority of current and future member states. I firmly believe the benefits of rotation far outweigh the problems and I am pleased that these arguments have been taken on board. We will have to see the final text before we can proclaim that we have won on this issue.
I also welcome the restoration of the deal agreed at Nice on the size and composition of the European Parliament. Members will be aware of the debate which took place on this issue last week. There had been deadlock on Nice treaty related issues in the Praesidium. By demanding votes in the national representatives group we were able to ensure there was no doubt the vast majority wanted to retain the institutional areas outlined in the Nice deal.
There are some outstanding institutional issues which will be discussed later this week, both in meetings of the component parts of the Convention – national representatives, national parliamentarians, Members of the European Parliament and the Commission – and in the plenary. Ongoing discussion is likely on the definition of qualified majority voting and the question of a legislative council. I am not convinced that a legislative council would serve any purpose. It would create a great deal of confusion and run counter to good organisational arrangements within member states. National representative groups voted on this issue last week and only two countries indicated any interest in the proposition.
In general terms, however, substantial progress has been made on these issues which were of concern to this Parliament. We should welcome what has been done to date. The Convention has not sought to alter the basic mix of policies which have served Ireland and the European Union well such as the Common Agricultural Policy and the Internal Market. As Members will be aware, proposals have been brought forward in the areas of justice and home affairs, foreign policy and defence. While we have made some progress in these areas, discussions are continuing and some of the issues are likely to be revisited in the Intergovernmental Conference where it has been suggested that no changes should be made. Unless there is absolute agreement in the Convention, it is not possible to suggest that no amendments will be made at the Intergovernmental Conference. We will undoubtedly see changes in the areas of justice and home affairs, foreign policy and defence. Taxation is an area in which we will continue to oppose moves towards harmonisation and qualified majority voting. We have worked closely with a number of partners, both current and future, in this area to ensure it is clear that this is an issue of paramount importance to us.
The Convention has done a great deal of good work over the past 16 months. I am sure that its report to the European Council will receive a broad welcome from EU leaders. It is important to note, however, that much more work needs to be done, some of which will be done at the Intergovernmental Conference, which is not to say anything negative about the Convention. The report will form, in large part, the basis for the negotiations in the Intergovernmental Conference that will follow in the autumn. At the same time, it is important to remember that the constitutional treaty will still only be in draft form and that it is highly likely that all Governments will have concerns that they will wish to revisit at the Intergovernmental Conference. The Government will give the final report of the Convention its most careful and detailed consideration with a view to ensuring any points of concern it identifies will be examined at the Intergovernmental Conference.
It will also use the interval between the end of the Convention and start of the Intergovernmental Conference to try to ensure that citizens are aware of the Convention's report and its true content. The agenda for the Intergovernmental Conference will largely determine its length. It cannot be ruled out that it will extend into Ireland's EU Presidency – the more agreement there is at the Convention, the shorter the Intergovernmental Conference should be. If that is the case, the Government will be honoured to take its work forward and, if necessary, conclude it.
The Convention concludes its work this week. I reiterate that I believe it has been a tremendous success. It has made substantial progress in a wide range of areas that might have been deemed unthinkable. Six or seven months ago, it did not seem likely that we would reach this point. Its final report this week should have the broad support of the Convention as a whole and we will have solid foundations on which to base the work of the Intergovernmental Conference later this year. All of these positive aspects, however, are in contrast to the fact that we still do not have final texts. We will have to wait until we see these. As Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe once said, it is not the devil that is in the details but God – even if he has not made his appearance so far in the preamble.
I pay tribute to my colleagues Deputy John Bruton, who has done extraordinarily good work in the Praesidium, Proinsias De Rossa, MEP, Deputies Gormley and Carey and my alternate, Bobby McDonagh, all of whom have done extraordinary work. Such work is not often recognised in this country, where we are more inclined to be cynical than to give praise. A huge amount of good work has been done. We have been able to fight for the issues that are significant to this country, while being prepared to listen to others and to work to bring forward improvements in the institutional and constitutional framework of Europe. Our job is not yet done – we cannot pat ourselves on the back – but hard work has been put into this and the country has not been let down.