EU, dispute over single foreign minister
EU, dispute over single foreign minister
ATHENS – On the day of the signing of the enlargement of the Union to ten new countries, the President of the European Convention, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, asks the Fifteen guarantees on the future constitution. And the heads of state argue over the powers of the super foreign minister. Thus, the summit in Athens turns into a great clarification on the future of Europe. In agreement with the Greek premier Costas Simitis, current president of the EU, the former head of state of France poses five questions to the greats of Europe: on the duration of the presidency of the Union, on who will appoint the president of the European Commission , on the number of commissioners, on the proposal to create or not an European congress, and on the foreign minister. Just the super minister sparked the most heated discussion. Some heads of state wanted a figure with less power than those in the draft prepared by Giscard. The project to assign in the Constitution to the person in charge of foreign policy and common defense the roles now covered by the troika – composed of the foreign minister of the country that has the rotating presidency, by the High Representative for foreign and defense policy Javier Solana and from the foreign relations commissioner Chris Patten – he finally received the approval of the presidium. Finally, the agenda of the summit this morning should also address the role of Europe in the post-war Iraq and the new Syria problem.
