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"ESTONIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION":
ESTONIA ON ITS WAY TO A CHANGING EUROPE
7^th International Conference
Tallinn, 1 - 3 November 2000

Contribution by Sen. Tino BEDIN
Chairman of the Committee on European Community Affairs,
Italian Senate

I would like to underline the attention that the Estonian Parliament, in co-operation with the Swedish Parliament, has given within this 7^th Conference to the debate on how to adjust national legislation to EU legislation. It is important to discuss this issue from all standpoints and to share different experiences. In this way, with no hurry but also without delay, we will eventually arrive at procedures following the same common lines, with due respect for the Constitutions and Parliamentary Rules of each individual country.
This was one of the topics discussed also at the recent COSAC meeting at Versailles. And I feel it significant that we are dealing with it again here, both because Sweden is about to take up the Presidency of the EU and because Estonia is one of the applicant countries that has closed a wide number of chapters in the negotiations for accession.
As MPs, it is our task to ensure that the different apportionment of people's sovereignty which the European Union has produced so far and will produce in the future does not result in a reduced democracy within the Union. It would be extremely serious if the total sum of developed and modern democracies, such as those guaranteed by our national constitutions, had a "minus" rather than a "plus" sign in front . Today, we already note a democratic deficit in EU institutions. We are convinced that if, on the one hand, this is due to an inevitable adjustment process, it is not and it should not be the rule in the EU.
In the past few years the Italian Parliament has devoted particular attention to this issue.
It is true that the first problem Italy had to address was the time needed to transpose Community rules into our own domestic legislation. This is done every year through a legislative instrument called "Community Act". In recent years the use of this instrument has become more timely and appropriate, so much so that Italy today is ranking high among those member states ensuring a swift implementation of Community legislation. Moreover, the Community Act has been modified in order to make parliamentary control more effective.
An overall reform bill is now about to be considered. It will have to take into consideration the Protocol on National Parliaments annexed to the Amsterdam Treaty, with particular reference to all the stages of EU law-making. During the past few months the Committee on European Community Affairs of the Italian Senate has gradually extended its activity to include consideration of Community legislative proposals and preparatory documents, with a view to giving the Italian Government guidance and indications for the negotiation process.
To back up the Government's action is only one of the reasons why national parliaments should be involved in EU law-making. And I believe that it is not the main one. The actual goal is to ensure transparency throughout the process and democratic participation in decision-making. This is a way to respond to the need to guarantee people's sovereignty also at a European level, as I pointed out at the beginning.
The Amsterdam Treaty has been a major step forward in that direction, thanks to the afore-mentioned Protocol on National Parliaments. It is now necessary to better define roles both within individual states and at EU level. Co-operation between national parliaments and EU institutions (thanks in particular to enhanced and constant relations with the European Parliament) makes it easier to keep our fellow citizens informed on the Union's commitments. And it is indeed essential if we are to be able to fully convey our citizens' concerns to EU institutions. As the European Parliament quite rightly stated in its Resolution of 15 May 1995, this form of co-operation contributes to a true democratic control over Europe's construction.
This issue is not included among the items of institutional reform that we hope will be approved by the European Council in Nice. Of course the agenda covers more urgent issues. They are urgent for the life of today's European Union and important for the life of tomorrow's Union. But the change in some of the decision-making procedures within the Union will in turn make it even more urgent to address the issue of EU citizens' democratic participation. A broader application of majority voting or a different composition of the European Commission will require instruments for democratic control and these will have to include the involvement of national parliaments.
It should be noted that co-operation between national parliaments and the European Parliament and, let me add, between individual national parliaments in the EU is at the very core of the model of shared sovereignty that we had in mind fifty years ago when we started to build the European Community. Now, at a time when we are faced with the challenging prospect of an enlargement, the construction work cannot go on without the Europeans' active participation and their convinced support.
The enlargement of the EU, to which Estonia is greatly contributing, must not imply "watering down" the Union politically. And this is the second point on which there is wide agreement in the Italian Parliament.
I have said before that we hope the Intergovernmental Conference will come to a successful end at the Nice European Council. And I say this because, since the conclusion of the Amsterdam Treaty, the Italian Senate has always agreed with the idea launched by Belgium and France, in addition to the Italian Government, that there was a need for an institutional reform aimed at making the European House "welcoming and cosy" for those who had expressed the desire to come and live under our same roof.
And according to the Italian Senate it not just a matter of organisational adjustments. We are driven by the political will to turn Europe into a political space of citizenship, freedom, democracy and not just an economic space. Faithful to the role it has traditionally played ever since Europe moved its first steps in the European construction, Italy is not willing to give up playing a major role in fostering a process likely to lead to a government capable of taking supreme decisions in the name of Europeans, as the Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi said as early as 1952.
What fifty years ago looked as the way ahead along the road, today has become a necessity in the light of the progress made in the European construction towards the common currency and the first embryo of a common defence. If in the December meeting in Nice no firm decisions are taken on the matters under discussion, there is undoubtedly the risk of a paralysis of EU institutions and a watering down of the integration process. Failing these decisions, serious uncertainties could emerge about the capability to meet the commitments made to the twelve applicant countries.
However, we are confident that Europe will be able to make a choice. And a move in that direction was already made by the Council at its Biarritz informal meeting when it decided to approve the draft Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which had been worked out by the Convention, and to proclaim it at the Council meeting in Nice.
This subject, too, will be discussed here at this Conference. The Council decision has been met with some disappointment in various part of the Union, in particular with reference to the possibility of incorporating the Charter into the Treaties. I will only say that though the Italian Senate has always been in favour of incorporating the Charter into the Treaties, we do not see the Biarritz decision as a defeat for Europe.
We rather consider it a stepping stone which will enable us to climb higher up. Furthermore, convinced as we are that the Charter marks the beginning of a process leading to the European Constitution, we deem it appropriate that the full participation of new EU member states be envisaged. In the end, a European Constitution fashioned in advance without the contribution of applicant countries would indeed have a limited meaning and horizon.

1 November 2000

L'Estonia verso l'adesione
ad un'Europa in cambiamento

1 novembre 2000 webmaster@euganeo.it

il collegio senatoriale di Tino Bedin