Liberal reaction to Praesidium Institutional Proposals

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 25th Apr 2003

Reacting to the Praesidium's draft, the Liberal Caucus is very critical that it seems to not only institutionalise rivalry between the Commission and the proposed Council president, but that it also creates substantial division between the new and old member states as well as exacerbates the differences between the large and small member states.

Andrew Duff MEP, chair of the Liberal Caucus said:

"The praesidium's draft has got some elements of the institutional puzzle right, namely the structure of the Council separating out its executive role from its legislative role. These are essential elements in the future Union and will greatly help the readability of the decision-making at the Union level. The grounding of the European Council in the Constitution is also to be welcomed."

Andrew Duff further said:

"A good improvement, however, would be the replacement of six-monthly presidency programme by an agreed multi-annual programme, proposed by the Commission and adopted by the European Council. The executive branches of the Council should then be chaired by the Commission and the General Affairs Council by the Commission president. This would then only leave the chairing of the European Council to be resolved, possibly either on a rotation basis or according to some form of permanent presidency - without excluding the possibility that this could be the same person as the President of the Commission."