EU IGC - A EURO-PARLIAMENTARIAN'S VIEW

UNCLAS ROME 004407

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PINR PREL PGOV IT EUN
SUBJECT: EU IGC - A EURO-PARLIAMENTARIAN'S VIEW


1. Summary: Poloff and Pol Specialist met with European
Parliament (EUP) Constitutional Affairs Committee
President Giorgio Napolitano recently to hear his views
on the EU Convention's draft Treaty establishing a
Constitution for Europe and his thoughts on the upcoming
Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) under Italy's EU
rotational Presidency. Napolitano said any future EU
"structured cooperation" on defense issues would not
impact negatively on EU-NATO relations. He also said
that tough compromises had already been forged during the
EU Convention's preparatory work and only minor
adjustments to the draft constitution should be
permitted. End summary.

The IGC should not reopen major discussion
--------------


2. Napolitano told us that the IGC should not reopen the
floor to discussion of major revisions to the current
draft constitution. The hard decisions and compromises
had been forged during the 18 months of the Convention.
Objections to the draft Treaty that were recently raised
by various heads of government and foreign ministers --
mostly from smaller countries, but also Poland and Spain
-- were responses to domestic political concerns.
Governments had been at the Convention and were kept
fully informed by their representatives, whose
recommendations they had already accepted. Conversely,
while national parliaments were also represented, the
level of information on the Convention's progress given
to them by their delegates -- including in Italy -- was
minimal. Napolitano recognized that the Treaty that will
result from the IGC will have to be ratified by national
parliaments and in referenda, hence the various last-
minute objections, but underscored that reopening
discussion on major issues would compromise the Treaty's
structure and balance.

QMV in foreign policy and security issues
--------------


3. Napolitano remarked that the EUP -- and he -- was in
favor of extending qualified majority voting (QMV) to
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) decisions, to
tax policies, and to decisions affecting EU internal
competition. He said the EUP -- and he -- would have
preferred much more binding commitments on EU economic
governance. Still, he argued, each Convention
participant had made some sacrifices and at this point
revising the draft Treaty drastically would be very
difficult. According to Napolitano, the wisest thing
would be for the IGC to make only relatively minor
adjustments.

The new EU FM is a weak figure
--------------


4. On the proposed EU Foreign Minister chairing an EU
Foreign Affairs Council, he was not hopeful on a strong
single EU voice on foreign affairs and did not offer
ideas on how often the chair should rotate. He remarked
that if there was no agreement on substance, the proposed
EU Foreign Minister will not be effective: a foreign
minister should be the center of "impulsion, elaboration,
and decision." However, if QMV is approved for even a
limited number of CFSP issues, a Foreign Minister might
have some power, he said.

Structured Cooperation in Defense
--------------


5. Queried by Poloff on a European Security and Defense
Policy (ESDP) and on how autonomous it could become,
Napolitano remarked that "nobody seriously believes the
EU can be self-sufficient or that it can compete with the
U.S. on technologies, nor that it can be an antagonist to
NATO." He understands the U.S. and UK's concern with the
EU establishing structured cooperation in the defense
sector among those member states with higher-level
military capabilities. Nonetheless, he remarked that the
"future of NATO is in Europe," that nobody in the EU
wants to exclude Great Britain, and that it would be
"unthinkable" to envisage a European defense without the
UK. The EU's allegiance to NATO, he argued, is long-
standing and was well expressed in the 1999 NATO Summit
on the occasion of NATO's 50th anniversary, which
provided a comprehensive overview of cooperation between
European Defense and NATO. Finally, queried on the
effects that QMV could have if the decision involved
participating in a war, he said he does not believe that
a majority position could be imposed on those member

countries that voted against.


6. Comment: Napolitano is a former member of the
Italian Communist Party (PCI),which he joined before the
end of WWII, and was the PCI's former "shadow foreign
minister" for many years. He joined the PCI's successor
party, the Party of the Democratic Left (DS) when the PCI
dissolved in 1991. Although his views are largely shaped
by his political affiliation, they also reflect his
background as Chamber of Deputies President during the
1980's, Interior Minister during the 1990's, and a member
of the Italian Delegation to the North Atlantic Assembly
during the 1980's and 1990's. He is on the left, but he
is a moderate and -- during the IGC -- we expect he will
support Presidency objectives.

Sembler


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2003ROME04407 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED