Eurobrief: the EU's presidential row

By GARETH HARDING, UPI Chief European Correspondent

BRUSSELS (UPI) - Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the septuagenarian statesman charged with drafting the European Union's first Constitution, is a man well-accustomed to criticism.
While president of France in the 1970s, he was often referred to as the "sun king" for his haughty and imperious style that harked back to the pre-revolutionary days of Louis XIV.

But after leaking controversial plans to create an EU presidency earlier this week, VGE - as he is commonly known in France - garnered a barrage of criticism fiercer than any he has faced since accepting a bag of diamonds from brutal African dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa in the early 1980s.
Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament, denounced Giscard d'Estaing as "autistic," while Jean-Louis Bourlanges, a French delegate to the 105-member assembly, claimed his compatriot's proposals demonstrated a "confused state of mind."

"If the convention is ever going to succeed, it's going to have to succeed in spite of its president, not because of it," declared a fuming Austrian delegate Klaus Voggenhuber.

So what crime did VGE commit to warrant such ill-tempered invective? Did he suggest conferring the French Legion d'Honneur on US President George W. Bush or getting rid
of Europeans' beloved monthlong summer break? No such thing.

Giscard d'Estaing's "double fault" was to present his proposals to the press before he did to members of the grandly titled Convention on the Future of Europe and then to dare suggest the EU should have a president, vice president and foreign minister like almost every civilized country in the world.

Members of the "politburo" running the convention were as incensed as backbench delegates and succeeded in watering down VGE's proposals even before they were formally unveiled Thursday.

Out went plans to have a vice president, a Cabinet-style EU government and fixed heads of Council of Ministers bodies - much to the delight of the commission and European Parliament delegates to the convention.

Klaus Hänsch, an influential member of the convention's inner circle, said the Frenchman's original proposals had been "plucked like a chicken," while another, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, boasted: "We have killed Giscard's document."

VGE's plans have undoubtedly been diluted by conservative forces that would prefer power to rest with the unelected commission and the absurd six-month rotating presidency of the EU.
However, it would be a mistake to write off the Grand Old Man of French politics and the innovative ideas he has proposed for making a Europe of 25 states more efficient, easier to govern and better able to project itself on the world stage.

Plans to create an EU foreign minister by fusing the jobs of current chief diplomats Chris Patten and Javier Solana have been almost unanimously welcomed by convention delegates and Union leaders. There is also a strong chance that Giscard d'Estaing's proposal to create an EU presidency will eventually see the light of day.

Although the plan is opposed by 18 of the EU's future members, all the largest and most powerful states - Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland - support the idea.
It is easy to see why. At present, if President George W. Bush wants to "phone Europe" - to paraphrase former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger - he has to check his diary to see which country is currently holding the EU presidency.

He then has to decide whether to speak to the president, prime minister or foreign minister of that country and to judge whether an additional call to Solana, Patten or commission chief Romano Prodi is necessary as well.

The result of this confusion is that Bush tends to simply calls British Premier Tony Blair, or possibly his Spanish chum Jose Maria Aznar.

Creating an EU presidency would put an end to the game of political musical chairs the Brussels-based club currently plays and would enable its voice to be heard on the world stage.
Who knows, given the energy he has put into his current job as convention chairman, maybe Giscard d'Estaing will end up as the first occupant of the EU White House. After all, VGE's hero Benjamin Franklin also chaired the convention that gave birth to the US Constitution in his late 70s.

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