Külügyi Szemle - A Teleki László Intézet Külpolitikai Tanulmányok Központja folyóirata - 2003 (2. évfolyam)
2003 / 2. szám - EURÓPA - Claus Juul Nielsen: Together in One Europe
Together in One Europe Their historic experiences, national tradition and culture could influence this agenda considerably and lead to quit substantial changes in the present EU policies and institutional structures, because their membership will alter the present balance of interest among member states considerably. Let me mention the most urgent among these points on the future EU agenda. • The Convention on the future of Europe. • Strengthening the common foreign and security policy • The mid-term review of the common agriculture policy. • The renewal of the EU budget and its financing. • The completion of the internal market and the so called Lisbon process There will be other important items on the future agenda, such as the common asylum policy, the fight against terrorism, cross-border crime and corruption, the relations between the enlarged EU and its new neighbors etc., but it will take us too fare away from our core theme today and besides Denmark due to the vote on the Maastrich Treaty do not participate in some of these policies at present. Let us try to look a bit more into the substance of these five items to try to define what kind of common ground for a future cooperation there could be between Denmark and Hungary. The Convention on the future of Europe The coming members are already full members of the Convention. The work of the Convention progressed unexpectedly rapid during the Danish Presidency and it now looks as if the Convention will be able to present a rather comprehensive and detailed proposal for chances and amendments to the existing EU treaties in late June this year. This proposal will then be negotiated in an inter-governmental conference consisting of the present 15 member states but also - in accordance with the conclusions from Copenhagen - the coming new members. So far the deliberations in the Convention has exposed some traditional historic fault lines in the positions of both member states and parliamentarians. Firstly, among member states, who takes an inter-governmental view on further European integration and those, who takes a more federalist view. Secondly, between small and big member states although not yet defining more precisely, who are big and who are small. Thirdly, between those, who want to increase the powers of the European Parliament compared with the ones, who want to maintain the present balance of powers between the three institutions, namely Council of Ministers, Commission and Parliament. These differences in positions are reflected in the discussions on some of the main themes of a reform of the EU system. Let me as example mention: 2003. nyár 13
