The Hindu : International : A new chapter in European integration

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 30, 2004

International

International

A new chapter in European integration

ROME, OCT. 29. The European Union Constitution signed on Friday is designed to give the Union a sharper international profile and speed up decision-making in a club now embracing 25 nations.

The treaty was the result of 28 months of sometimes acrimonious debate between the 25 E.U. Governments and now faces ratification in national Parliaments. At least nine E.U. nations also plan to put it to a referendum, increasing chances that it may not take effect in 2007 as scheduled.

Spat overshadows event

The E.U. leaders signed the document at the Campidoglio, a Michaelangelo-designed complex of buildings on Rome's Capitoline Hill.

Also present at the ceremony were the leaders from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Croatia — four candidates for E.U. membership.

The event was overshadowed by a spat over the make-up of the next E.U. executive that stems from misgivings about a conservative Italian nominee. Rocco Buttiglione, the incoming E.U. Justice Commissioner, is opposed by a large segment of the 732-member European Parliament.

The conservative Catholic and papal confidant has raised concerns by saying he believed homosexuality is a sin and that women are better off married and at home.

The Constitution foresees simpler voting rules to end decision gridlock in a club that expanded to 25 members this year and plans to absorb half a dozen more in the years ahead.

It includes new powers for Parliament and ends national vetoes in 45 new policy areas — including judicial and police cooperation, education and economic policy — but not in foreign and defence policy, social security, taxation or cultural matters.

The Constitution was signed in the Sala Degli Orazi e Curiazi, the same spectacular hall in a Renaissance palazzo where in 1957 six nations — Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg — signed the Union's founding treaty.

`Solution in sight'

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, said today he expected the political standoff over the E.U. executive to be resolved within two weeks.

Mr. Schroeder told reporters before attending the ceremony to sign the new Constitution that the problem triggered by the incoming Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso's failure to win Parliament backing for his team was not yet a crisis. ``I wouldn't talk about a crisis, not yet, if in the next two weeks we find an agreement and I think we will, the problem will have been overcome,'' Mr. Schroeder said, adding that E.U. leaders would discuss the issue. — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section