A single President for the Union

12.00.00am GMT Mon 3rd Feb 2003

The first formal proposal has been made to the Convention for the creation of a unified presidency of the European Union and the complete separation of the law-making work of the Council from its governmental role. The authors of the proposals are Euro-MP Andrew DUFF, who chairs the Liberal caucus in the Convention, and his colleague Lamberto DINI, former Italian Foreign Minister.

The contribution (CONV 524/03) draws on proposals from other members of the Convention, including the French and German governments (CONV 489/03), but counters the idea of a super-president of the European Council with powers to supervise the Commission.

The paper calls for the election of a President of the Union who would chair both the European Council and the European Commission.

Other main elements of the proposals are: President appointed (and sacked) jointly by the European Council and Parliament; President deploys executive powers of both Commission and Council; Law Council, chaired by a minister, to work in public and by codecision with the Parliament; Four formations of the Executive Council, chaired by the integrated Presidency; Multi-annual policy strategy adopted by the European Council on a proposal from the Commission after consulting the Parliament and national parliaments; Strengthened European Council by bringing stable leadership and greater powers of delivery.

Andrew Duff said:

"The new constitution has got to respect the institutional integrity of the Union, consolidate its parliamentary democracy, simplify its system of governance and strengthen its leadership. The key focus of this proposal is the separation of the executive from the legislative work of the Council and the gathering of all government functions under the one presidency. This is the way to avoid the risk of deadly rivalry between the Council and Commission."