By Anthony Fletcher - 10th July 2007
STRASBOURG: The European parliament has formally backed the convening of an inter-governmental conference (IGC) to draw up a reform treaty.
MEPs voted by 526 votes to 138 with 26 abstentions in favour of constitutional affairs committee chair Jo Leinen’s report, giving the green light for treaty talks to begin.
“This was a good day for European unification,” said parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering shortly after the plenary vote Wednesday lunchtime.
“We have seen the broadest degree of agreement and I would like to thank (Portuguese prime minister) Jose Socrates for his recognition that parliament should be involved at all levels of the IGC.”
Socrates, who now heads Portugal’s presidency of the EU, told journalists that the support given by parliament was “highly significant”.
“We feel we have the support to move from mandate to treaty,” he said. “We want to wind it up in October, and I think it is feasible that we can get it done in time.”
The completion of a reform treaty is the number one priority of the new Portuguese presidency. But despite broad support in parliament, it is clear that it will not be all plain sailing from here to October.
“The Portuguese presidency needs to show leadership qualities and should not allow new demands from individual member states,” Leinen told a press conference.
He called on EU governments to agree the text in time for October’s EU summit. But some MEPs, notably from the UK, have already brought up the issue of ratification.
“Tony Blair promised the British people a referendum three years ago and Gordon Brown now has the moral obligation to deliver,” conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope said in plenary.
"There are also serious concerns in the UK about the legal position of the so-called British opt out of the charter of fundamental rights."
Socrates deflected questions on ratification in a press conference, saying that he would only discuss ratification “when we have something worth ratifying”.
“It is up to member states,” he said, referring to parliamentary ratification and referendum as means of treaty ratification.
European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said that the commission “respected the concept of subsidiarity” and “the rights of member states”, while Poettering added that parliamentary ratification was a “totally democratic system”.
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