Treaty of Nice: Europe's next steps

By Robin Oakley
CNN.com European Political Editor

NICE, France (CNN) -- The 15 European Union countries take it in turn to occupy the presidency of the union for six-month terms. During their period in the chair, countries host European summits and chair meetings of the Council of Ministers. They inherit responsibility for a rolling programme of work but also have the chance to set priorities and influence the European agenda.

In the first half of 2000, Portugal held the presidency, putting the focus at the Lisbon summit on e-commerce and developing knowledge-based economies across Europe. In 2001 Sweden and then Belgium are running the show. They will hope for an easier time than France had in the EU presidency in the second half of 2000.

IN-DEPTH   •  Embarking on expansion   •  EU enlargement map   •  History of EU growth   •  Nice: Europe's next steps   •  What kind of Europe?   •  Key leaders' views

The French presidency inherited the long-unresolved problem of how to reform Europe's institutions -- set up for six countries in 1957 -- to prepare for enlargement of the union to as many as 30 nations. An inter-governmental conference (IGC) lasting many months tackled the four key issues. They were:

• Enhanced co-operation. Under this scheme, advocated by French President Jacques Chirac, groups of EU countries were to be allowed to go ahead with faster integration and greater co-ordination of their policies, even if some other countries had reservations about them doing so. Some feared this could create a two-tier Europe, leading to arguments over what the minimum number should be for any such group. There were disputes too over the terms on which the "emergency brake" procedure, allowing one other country to veto such a move, would be dismantled.

The Nice summit took steps to reform EU institutions to prepare for membership of as many as 30 countries

• Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). Some issues in the European Union are determined by majority decisions. Others require a unanimous vote. Many countries argued that it would be impossible to get anything done in an enlarged EU unless most questions were decided by majority voting. They wanted national vetoes to disappear on most issues. But France would not agree to lose the veto on world trade talks negotiations, fearing deals that would dilute its cultural identity. The UK was insistent that the veto must be kept on issues of taxation, defence and social security policy, as well as on any treaty changes -- such as a move towards more QMV.

• Balance of Power. In qualified majority voting, the number of votes each country wields depends on its population size. But there had been no adjustment, for example, to allow for the reunification of West and East Germany. The Germans, who number more than 80 million, resented having no more votes than France, Italy and the UK which have around 60 million residents each.

Vedrine had warned EU members that if they did not "meet this challenge, then all the other speculations, proposals, reflections and orientations will not have a leg to stand on."

• Number of Commissioners. At the moment big countries have two members each on the European Commission in Brussels and small countries have one. Most countries recognise that a commission maintained on the present basis would become unwieldy as the EU expands further. In the IGC discussions, the big countries signalled their willingness to settle for only one commissioner each, providing that voting weights were updated in the separate Council of Ministers.

Ambitious plans

It fell to the French presidency to ensure that the changes, to be embodied in a new European treaty, were agreed in Nice. But it proved a close-run thing.

On taking the EU chair, the French had ambitions to develop a "social agenda," with governments, employers and trade unions combining to reinforce welfare and increase employment. But plans for a "binding programme" on growth and jobs gave way at the preliminary summit of the French EU presidency at Biarritz to efforts to achieve the constitutional reforms. So did the idea of boosting the role of the Euro-11 group of finance ministers -- ministers from countries that have joined the single currency.

An initial success for the French presidency was the agreement of the 15 leaders at Biarritz on a new European Charter of Fundamental Rights setting out more than 50 rights for the EU's 375 million citizens. Seen by French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin as a counter to free-market ideas being pushed by Spain and the UK, it included such measures as the right to life, to education, to take collective industrial action, and to a dignified old age.

Jospin saw France's proposal for a Charter of Fundamental Rights as a counter to free-market ideas being pushed by Spain and the UK

The charter was formally proclaimed at the Nice summit but was not made part of the new treaty. Thus it did not become legally binding on member states. Chirac said that it would be for the following Swedish presidency to settle its precise legal status.

Some countries, such as the UK, said they would only accept the charter as a showcase of existing rights and would not agree to anything that made it legally binding.

Time for change

The Nice summit did not open against a helpful background. There had been arguments between the French and Germans, traditionally united as the driving force within the EU, over the pace of integration.

Chirac then became involved in a row with the British (and Americans) over his declaration at an early news conference in Nice that a new Rapid Reaction Force in Europe should be independent of NATO.

That was smoothed over when he backed down, but it set nerves jangling. So did an early row between Chirac and Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission.

In advance of the summit, smaller states complained of French "bullying," and when they saw the first drafts of French proposals for national voting strengths and levels of European Parliament membership there was more anger.

Many nations said the French should have done more to narrow down the fields of argument before the summit began. Some conceded the problem was that political strains imposed by the "cohabitation" of a Conservative French president with a Socialist prime minister made the French inflexible negotiators.

Nice became the longest EU summit in history, not concluding until 4:30 a.m. on the fifth day after all-day and all-night sessions with frequent breaks for delegates to refer to their calculators and computer spreadsheets.

It was the question of national voting weights that proved hardest to crack, after the French early on acknowledged that the British and others were not budging on the question of extending qualified majority voting to subjects like tax and social security.

The enhanced co-operation project was approved, and reforms of the European Commission were achieved -- but only to apply at a later date. And European Parliament numbers grew well beyond initial targets, as consolation prizes were awarded to countries that felt their needs weren't met in vote-weighting for the Council of Ministers.

The French gained a result in the end -- and on a project so ambitious some diplomats reckoned that getting 60 percent of the original aims was a fair achievement. But all were agreed that the EU had to find a better way of doing business in future.