A System Out of Balance

The Bertelsmann Foundation analysis of the draft EU Constitution warns of a danger that contradictory and bureaucratic dual structures will be established.

The strategy paper by the Bertelsmann Research Group at the Center for Applied Policy Research (C.A.P) states that the draft of a remodelled European Constitution points in the right direction, but there is clearly a considerable need for further amendments. The proposals that have been presented by the Praesidium of the constitutional Convention threaten to upset the institutional balance at the expense of the European Parliament and the Commission. At the same time there is a danger that contradictory and bureaucratic dual structures will be established.

With regard to the concluding discussions of the constitutional Convention, the research group, at the request of the Bertelsmann Foundation, has analyzed the political implications of an implementation of the present proposals, and singles out a number of weaknesses. It ought to be the fundamental goal of the forthcoming constitution to strengthen political leadership and at the same time the democratic expression of political will in the EU, without endangering the requisite balance.

For this reason, the team of experts is very much opposed to the European Council’s right to nominate a candidate for the office of President of the Commission. Such a procedure would negate the significance of the European elections as an act of participation and control on the part of the electorate. In the opinion of Professor Werner Weidenfeld, a member of the Executive Board of the Bertelsmann Foundation and Director of C.A.P, “Institutional reform hinges on the election of the President of the Commission by the European Parliament. If the latter is simply going to be required to give its assent to a candidate presented to it by the heads of state and government, this will not be consonant with democratic standards. Citizens would see at once that such a fake election is nothing but a placebo.”

With regard to the Commission college, the Munich-based research group is in favour of reducing the number of EU commissioners. However, they are critical of the envisaged introduction of lists from which the President of the Commission will in future be required to select his commissioners. The President of the Commission ought to be free to determine the number of posts and those who are appointed to them.

Furthermore, the research group experts are in favour of the proposed introduction of a President of the European Council to be elected by the heads of state and government. However, in order to preserve the institutional balance in the EU political leadership, this office would have to be paired with a strong President of the Commission. Policy consultant Werner Weidenfeld has commented, “There is a need for an efficient dual leadership in Europe, although this must be organised on a division of labour principle if it is not, taken as a whole, to weaken Europe’s ability to exert influence and indeed its credibility.”

The tasks assigned to the President of the European Council are as yet rather vague. For this reason it is not enough to state that it is the duty of the respective holders of the office to represent the EU externally on the highest level. The Munich-based think tank is of the opinion that, among other things, the role of the President in relation to the future EU Minister of Foreign Affairs needs to be defined with greater precision.

The proposed introduction of a group praesidium within the European Council should be rejected out of hand, since this body could easily develop into a permanent institutional opponent of the Commission and promote the establishment of inefficient dual structures. Finally, the Bertelsmann research group approves of the envisaged reduction of the European Parliament to a maximum of 700 MEPs and the introduction of a proportionally digressive distribution of seats with a minimum of four seats per member state. Yet here again it perceives the danger of the establishme nt of superfluous dual structures, for example, as in the plan to set up a “European Congress of the Peoples of Europe”. In the final analysis the creation of such a body, one-third of which would consist of MEPs, and two-thirds of deputies from the national parliaments, would stymie the urgently needed enhancement of the powers of the European Parliament.

Read the complete text of the strategy paper

A System Out of Balanceonline.