Storms Ahead as European Union Leaders Return From Summer Break Laurent Barthelemy

Opinion, August 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Storms Ahead as European Union Leaders Return From Summer Break

Laurent Barthelemy , Agence France Presse, Arab News

BRUSSELS, 25 August 2003 — European Union leaders returning from their summer holidays are bracing for a bumpy ride in coming months, with storm clouds looming on several fronts, both political and economic.

While a fraud scandal casts a shadow over the European Commission, the economically-ailing bloc faces growing pressure over ballooning deficits threatening to explode belt-tightening budget rules.

And to top it all, EU capitals face a looming deadline to hammer out an unprecedented constitutional treaty paving the way for the union’s historic expansion next year.

First up on the timetable of trouble is likely to be commission head Romano Prodi, who takes the stand in the European Parliament in early September to defend himself over a scandal at the Eurostat EU’s data office.

The Parliament’s powerful Budgetary Control Committee has accused him of failing to act fast enough over charges that Eurostat officials siphoned off 900,000 euros ($1 million) of funds into a Luxembourg bank account.

The EU executive finally launched disciplinary proceedings in July against Eurostat head Yves Franchet and two other senior officials over the allegations, which had been circulating for months.

Parliament head Pat Cox has indicated that the EU legislature will not press for the scalp of the commission head, three and a half years after it claimed that of Prodi’s predecessor Jacques Santer and his entire team. But while Prodi is not worrying about his job, the resignation of monetary affairs commissioner Pedro Solbes — who oversees Eurostat — is not being ruled out in Brussels corridors.

Solbes defense of his position on the scandal has failed to impress so far. He notably explained it was “difficult” for him to feel responsible for alleged crimes of which he was not aware. “That was a real gaffe. He shot himself in the foot by using an argument which brought down the Santer commission,” which collapsed amid multiple scandals in 1999, said one EU official.

Solbes forced departure would be all the more difficult since he is the “guardian” of the bloc’s embattled Stability and Growth Pact. The pact, which enshrines strict rules of budgetary rigour for the 12-member euro zone, is looking increasingly wobbly as EU heavwyeights France and Germany threaten to breach its terms for the third straight year.

While the entire zone is on the brink of recession, Paris and Berlin are set to slash taxes in a bid to kickstart growth — a move almost certain to keep their public deficits above a ceiling of three percent of gross domestic product set by the pact.

French President Jacques Chirac has called for a temporary easing of the pact. EU finance ministers have so far rebuffed that idea, but it is bound to return to the table when they meet again on Sept. 12-13 in Italy.

Italy will also be the venue for the main EU political event of the next few months: Negotiations on a first-ever constituion for the bloc, which expands to 25 members next May. An Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) will be launched in Rome on Oct. 4, aimed at completing the work in time for a December EU summit. But tough talks are expected, with clear divisions remaining on a draft constitution finalized in June by a convention headed by former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing.

Key bones of contention range from voting rights — disputed notably by Spain and incoming EU heavyweight Poland — to proposals for a new full-time president and differences over whether religion should be referred to in the EU blueprint.

To complicate matters, the constitutional wrangling will be chaired by none other than Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose country holds the EU reins until the end of December.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).