EUROPEAN UNION: MEPS CALL FOR OVERHAUL OF COUNCIL OF MINISTERS.

Summary:MEPs call for sweeping reforms to the Council of Ministers' role and structures in the run-up to enlargement of the EU and for a basic set of citizens' rights to be enshrined in the Treaty, in two reports adopted by large majorities in the Institutional Affairs Committee on January 21. These reports have been passed at a time when the Council's General Secretariat is putting the final touches to a report on the institution's operating procedures and against the background of the German Presidency's call for a Charter of fundamental rights.

Jean-Louis Bourlanges (EPP, France) calls in his report for a thorough overhaul of the role, structures and operating procedures of the Council, the central EU decision-making body, in order to prevent paralysis as the EU prepares to take in new members. He believes the Council is being undermined by the growing confusion between its various bodies, namely the European Council, Council of Ministers, Presidency, COREPER (Committee of Member States' Permanent Representatives to the EU) and the specialist committees, and he warned during the debate on his report of the Council's "pernicious" tendency to bypass the proper Treaty procedures with informal networks and meetings and specialist committees, such as the Monetary Committee, the Political Committee and the K.4 Committee (which deals with justice and home affairs).

He wants to see the Political Committee and the K.4 Committee disbanded and the role of preparing the Council's work restored to COREPER. The General Affairs Council should be revamped with enhanced powers and given a clear mandate to coordinate the Council's work.

The European Council must focus on its role of providing political impetus and setting general policy guidelines, he says. To avoid the risk of drift, it must be rationalised and its meetings should generally be restricted to Heads of State or Government and the Commission President.

The report adopted by Institutional Affairs Committee predicts that the Presidency will have to concentrate increasingly on its conciliation tasks, hammering out legislation with Parliament and the Commission, and so will need to hand over the leadership of the EU and the conduct of foreign policy to the President of the Commission and the High...