Onenigheid lidstaten inzake voorstellen ministers van Financiën (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU governments were left divided by unilateral proposals by finance ministers to curb the powers of the Commission in controlling the euro stability and growth pact.

The proposal, unanimously reached at a recent finance ministers meeting, caused turmoil among foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to discuss the Constitution, not least because it was not clear to what extent it was approved by the national governments.

An EU diplomat said the reactions fell into three categories.

One of the most positive was the UK. It favoured the proposal which talks about reducing the power of the Commission to enforce the rules governing the euro and limiting the European Parliament's powers over the EU's budget.

The second wave of countries were completely against the whole package by the finance ministers - these included Germany and the Benelux countries.

The rest of the countries favoured some parts of the proposal and were against other parts.

Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, said there was "some considerable approval" for the finance ministers' ideas on strengthening the eurogroup (the 12 eurozone countries), on price stability and on the European Central Bank.

The issues surrounding the Parliament and the Commission were much more controversial.

Klaus Hänsch, one of the European Parliament representatives in the Constitution discussion called the proposals "an attack".

He defended the European Parliament's right to have the last say on the EU budget by saying that the 3/5 majority required to reject the budget is "exceptionally high and very difficult to attain".

The German Socialist MEP said that the Parliament's "assessment of the IGC [intergovernmental conference] will be made on this basis".

No more unilateral suggestions

The Italian Presidency, however, tried to put a lid on the whole issue - although the initial agreement had been pushed by the Italian Finance Minister, Mr Tremonti.

Mr Frattini said "we can't recognise some privileged status for ECOFIN [the finance ministers council]".

He admitted that to do so would mean having to take on board suggestions from all sectoral councils.

He also said that the discussion on the Constitution, known as the Intergovernmental Conference, only has a mandate to take on suggestions by EU leaders and their foreign ministers.

However, the topic has been raised now and Mr Frattini also made clear that as some issues were supported by many governments, it was a reason for looking at them.