Austria seeks resurrection for EU constitution

Europe returns to political business as usual with the launch of the Austrian EU presidency in Vienna on Monday.

The ‘college’ of 25 European Commissioners is in the Austrian capital to meet Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and his ministers.

Speaking on Sunday, Schuessel spelled out Austria’s ambition to breath back some life into the EU’s moribund constitution after French and Dutch referendum rejections last year.

Austria will conclude its six-month EU presidency with a Brussels debate among Europe’s leaders on the way forward for the new treaty.

“We have promised ourselves that we will restart the negotiations on the constitution. We will not be able to resolve the matter entirely, that is clear,” said Schuessel

“But we have made it our aim to present a progress report at the summit in June.”

Austria’s Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik believes the time is right to thaw out a constitution in deep hibernation.

“The constitutional process… is now in a way covered with a blanket of snow and waiting for spring. So what we need is climate change,” she said.

How Europe’s elites will revive an EU constitution rejected by voters in two founder nations is as yet unclear.

One option is to “cherry pick” key institutional aspects of the text such as the creation of an EU foreign minister or greater openness at councils of ministers.

Austria’s Vice-Chancellor Hubert Gorbach has urged the EU to redraft a text that gives power to Europe’s regions.

“We need to go back to the start, we need to newly regulate the powers, he said on Sunday.

“We need less regulation from Brussels and
more powers to the Europe of the regions.”
 
A final decision on how to proceed will be left to the German EU presidency in 2007 but Austria will hope that progress on Europe’s economy will drive a positive debate among citizens.

“In all European nations there should be a dialogue with the people, in the public domain, about the border of Europe, about the institutions, about where we are going and not just about where we are coming from,” Schuessel told German TV.

Many of Europe’s capitals are hopeful that rising economic optimism in Europe and a December deal on Brussels expenditure will turn the tide of EU pessimism after a bad year in 2005.

Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and others among Europe’s great and good, points to last October’s informal Hampton Court summit as a way forward.

The gathering of Europe’s leaders – under the auspices of the UK EU presidency – set out key political priorities for Europe in a bid to reconnect with voters.

Proposals for a “globalisation adjustment fund” – seen as a ‘shock absorber’ to help re-train, or reallocate, workers in the fall out from economic restructuring – were agreed in December.

Calls for development of a European energy policy – including a debate on nuclear power – have been driven by concerns over gas supply security.

Austria is to focus the agenda on the “specifically European social model” in a bid to push through economic reforms at a March summit and to reassure citizens.

But Austria’s EU presidency is unlikely to be plain sailing with economic and political controversies over proposed legislation and European expansion looming.

Vienna must try to negotiate a path forward on deeply divisive proposals to shake up Europe’s service sector, worth 70 per cent of Europe’s economy.

The EU’s Services Directive is currently in the European Parliament and faces hostility from Europe’s left and the French.

Debate over further European enlargement has become hostile as Austria must oversee the opening stage of membership talks with Turkey.

Over 80 per cent of Austrians, and large majorities of French and German voters, are sceptical or opposed to Turkish EU membership.

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