Balkenende en andere EU-leiders bespreken toekomst EU-grondwet in Salzburg (en) - Main contents

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A high-profile conference in Salzburg on the future of Europe saw the interest of leaders and intellectuals shift away from constitutional designs towards concrete political action - but EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana i warned against sidelining the EU constitution.

"Legitimacy through action" emerged as one of the buzzwords at the "Sound of Europe" conference on Friday and Saturday (27-28 January), staged by the Austrian EU presidency in a bid to revive the discussion on the EU constitution.

Participants in the prestigious conference, including four EU government leaders and two presidents, differed in their diagnosis on whether or not the EU is "in crisis" after last year's rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters.

But both optimists and pessimists called for concrete political action rather than for institutional solutions to regain citizens' confidence in the EU.

Dominique de Villepin, the French prime minister, in a keynote speech identified a "deep crisis" in the EU, a "crisis of legitimacy" as well as an "identity crisis."

The French leader mooted a "Europe of projects" as a way to regain citizens' confidence, singling out tax harmonisation, a common EU border police and an EU energy policy as means to address citizens' practical concerns.

But Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende i was more upbeat, saying "Let's not talk about a crisis - that is the last thing we need," and indicated the EU should refrain from "abstract" institutional talk and "show concrete results and solutions" instead.

The Austrian and Finnish leaders echoed the call for pragmatism, with Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schussel pledging a move "away from the grand phrases to concrete experiences."

Two Camps?

The government leaders' comments indicated implicit support for a line which has been long-championed by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso i, who in Salzburg renewed his call for a focus on "growth and jobs," urging EU leaders not create "new cleavages" over the constitution.

But Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, warned against the emergence of two opposing camps.

"There is a risk that we fall into a catch 22 situation where some people want tangible results first, and others want the constitution first."

Mr Solana called for "legitimacy through action" and a "result oriented" pragmatism, but he added "surely we can better deliver with a constitution."

"If you want the EU to deliver, you should want the constitution too," he stated.

Subsidiarity interest

The closest the Salzburg gathering came to institutional issues was a frequent mentioning of the word "subsidiarity," the idea enshrined in the EU treaty that decisions should be taken as close to citizens as possible.

During one of the panel discussions, commission chief Barroso launched a strong attack at some of his own officials' drive for ever-more regulation from Brussels.

"Some people in Brussels have a view where EU is upstairs, member states are somewhere downstairs and citizens are still further downstairs," the commission president said.

"We need a change in mindset," he added.

Matti Vanhanen, the Finnish prime minister, highlighted that "in my country there is a lot of criticism that the EU has its fingers in a lot of issues where they feel member states should act," with his Austrian and Dutch counterparts making similar references.

The sound of silence

But while inside the Salzburg conference building, leaders teamed up to pledge closeness to European citizens, the "Sound of Europe" event drew strong criticism for being elitist and detached from reality.

The leader of the Austrian social democrat opposition Alfred Gusenbauer termed the event as an "elitist, absurd theatre," organising an alternative gathering with citizens and NGOs at a European socialist meeting in Dublin instead.

His criticism appeared to be symbolically underlined in Salzburg when Margot Wallstrom, European communication commissioner, wanted to broadcast street interviews with ordinary people on large video screens - but failed to provide sound due to technical problems.

"Don't do that to me, that is a nightmare," she said, before a second attempt to make the people on the street heard also didn't work.