Convention No to Enhanced Co-Operation

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 22nd May 2003

Reacting to the Praesidium's draft articles on enhanced cooperation (CONV 723/03), Andrew Duff has proposed the suppression of these provisions.

In a statement circulated to the Convention today Duff says:

"Enhanced cooperation has never worked and is never likely to. It is an affront to the Convention's drive towards rationalisation, simplification and clarity.

"The possibility of forming a core group of member states was introduced at the time of the Amsterdam Treaty as a way of circumventing the veto of the then British government against any extension of Qualified Majority Voting in the Council. Plus ca change ...

"As the Convention is likely to establish QMV as the future norm, the usefulness of enhanced cooperation is even less assured. Its deployment would divide the institutions internally and threaten the integrity of the acquis communautaire.

"Enhanced cooperation certainly has its place in the area of common security and defence policy, as proposed by the Praesidium (Article 30.6 pf Part I). The concept has already been taken up avant la lettre by the leaders of Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg.

"But enhanced cooperation where all member states agree about the political objectives, which is not the case for defence, will look out of place in a Constitution whose purpose is to strengthen the ties that bind and the cohesion of the Union."