EU'S PRODI DEMANDS END TO SHARED PRESIDENCY BBC NEWS - Tue Jan 9,2001 -- The President of the European Union Commission, Romano Prodi, has said that the system of rotating the union's presidency every six months is "untenable" in the long term.
In an interview with the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Mr Prodi said the current system - where each country takes its turn at the head of the union - is "ineffective political tourism". "We can't go on spinning around like this. This is a big, big, big problem for us to work, like we do now, with different negotiating cultures and different people," he said.
SECRET PLAN FOR E.U. `SUPERSTATE' Germany and Italy delivered a serious blow to Tony Blair on the eve of the Nice summit yesterday by calling for yet another round of negotiations to achieve an even closer European Union. In a confidential joint paper sent to France, which holds the EU's rotating Presidency, Berlin and Rome said the summit should agree to hold an inter-governmental conference (IGC) in 2004 "with a view to the further development of European integration". It immediately refuelled Eurosceptic claims that the EU is on the road to becoming a 'superstate'. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,47203,00.html
EXPECTATIONS MIXED AHEAD OF E.U. SUMMIT
Thirteen countries are knocking on the European Union's door, pushing
to get into the club they associate with Western-style prosperity. But failure at this week's EU summit won't cause crisis among the applicants: After years of being told to wait, most are braced for further delay. Leaders seek a radical overhaul of the EU's decision- making machinery in preparation for expansion into eastern Europe. All 15 EU nations agree their institutions must be streamlined so they don't get clogged when EU membership is swelled by up to a dozen new members. http://www.foxnews.com/world/1206/i_ap_1206_3.smlBACK