US embassy cable - 03ROME4407

UNCLAS  ROME 004407 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR, PREL, PGOV, IT, EUN 
SUBJECT: EU IGC - A EURO-PARLIAMENTARIAN'S VIEW 
 
1.  Summary:  Poloff and Pol Specialist met with European 
Parliament (EUP) Constitutional Affairs Committee 
President Giorgio Napolitano recently to hear his views 
on the EU Convention's draft Treaty establishing a 
Constitution for Europe and his thoughts on the upcoming 
Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) under Italy's EU 
rotational Presidency.  Napolitano said any future EU 
"structured cooperation" on defense issues would not 
impact negatively on EU-NATO relations.  He also said 
that tough compromises had already been forged during the 
EU Convention's preparatory work and only minor 
adjustments to the draft constitution should be 
permitted.  End summary. 
 
The IGC should not reopen major discussion 
------------------------------------------ 
 
2.  Napolitano told us that the IGC should not reopen the 
floor to discussion of major revisions to the current 
draft constitution.  The hard decisions and compromises 
had been forged during the 18 months of the Convention. 
Objections to the draft Treaty that were recently raised 
by various heads of government and foreign ministers -- 
mostly from smaller countries, but also Poland and Spain 
-- were responses to domestic political concerns. 
Governments had been at the Convention and were kept 
fully informed by their representatives, whose 
recommendations they had already accepted.  Conversely, 
while national parliaments were also represented, the 
level of information on the Convention's progress given 
to them by their delegates -- including in Italy -- was 
minimal.  Napolitano recognized that the Treaty that will 
result from the IGC will have to be ratified by national 
parliaments and in referenda, hence the various last- 
minute objections, but underscored that reopening 
discussion on major issues would compromise the Treaty's 
structure and balance. 
 
QMV in foreign policy and security issues 
----------------------------------------- 
 
3.  Napolitano remarked that the EUP -- and he -- was in 
favor of extending qualified majority voting (QMV) to 
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) decisions, to 
tax policies, and to decisions affecting EU internal 
competition.  He said the EUP -- and he -- would have 
preferred much more binding commitments on EU economic 
governance.  Still, he argued, each Convention 
participant had made some sacrifices and at this point 
revising the draft Treaty drastically would be very 
difficult.  According to Napolitano, the wisest thing 
would be for the IGC to make only relatively minor 
adjustments. 
 
The new EU FM is a weak figure 
------------------------------ 
 
4.  On the proposed EU Foreign Minister chairing an EU 
Foreign Affairs Council, he was not hopeful on a strong 
single EU voice on foreign affairs and did not offer 
ideas on how often the chair should rotate.  He remarked 
that if there was no agreement on substance, the proposed 
EU Foreign Minister will not be effective: a foreign 
minister should be the center of "impulsion, elaboration, 
and decision."  However, if QMV is approved for even a 
limited number of CFSP issues, a Foreign Minister might 
have some power, he said. 
 
Structured Cooperation in Defense 
--------------------------------- 
 
5.  Queried by Poloff on a European Security and Defense 
Policy (ESDP) and on how autonomous it could become, 
Napolitano remarked that "nobody seriously believes the 
EU can be self-sufficient or that it can compete with the 
U.S. on technologies, nor that it can be an antagonist to 
NATO."  He understands the U.S. and UK's concern with the 
EU establishing structured cooperation in the defense 
sector among those member states with higher-level 
military capabilities.  Nonetheless, he remarked that the 
"future of NATO is in Europe," that nobody in the EU 
wants to exclude Great Britain, and that it would be 
"unthinkable" to envisage a European defense without the 
UK.  The EU's allegiance to NATO, he argued, is long- 
standing and was well expressed in the 1999 NATO Summit 
on the occasion of NATO's 50th anniversary, which 
provided a comprehensive overview of cooperation between 
European Defense and NATO.  Finally, queried on the 
effects that QMV could have if the decision involved 
participating in a war, he said he does not believe that 
a majority position could be imposed on those member 
 
countries that voted against. 
 
6.  Comment:  Napolitano is a former member of the 
Italian Communist Party (PCI), which he joined before the 
end of WWII, and was the PCI's former "shadow foreign 
minister" for many years.  He joined the PCI's successor 
party, the Party of the Democratic Left (DS) when the PCI 
dissolved in 1991.  Although his views are largely shaped 
by his political affiliation, they also reflect his 
background as Chamber of Deputies President during the 
1980's, Interior Minister during the 1990's, and a member 
of the Italian Delegation to the North Atlantic Assembly 
during the 1980's and 1990's.  He is on the left, but he 
is a moderate and -- during the IGC -- we expect he will 
support Presidency objectives. 
 
Sembler 
 
 
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	2003ROME04407 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED