Santer to face final hurdle to presidency

JACQUES SANTER has several flaming hoops to jump through before he becomes president of the European Commission. Notwithstanding his endorsement by the 12 EU heads of state yesterday, the European Parliament formally warned it would veto his appointment if he failed next week to convince MEPs he was up to the job.

Under new powers instituted under the Maastricht treaty, the Parliament must ratify the new Commission - the president and his 16 commissioners appointed by member states - before it can take office in January. Anxious to demonstrate that it is a force to be reckoned with, the parliament intends to grill the candidates publicly in the style of US Senate hearings, starting with Mr Santer on Tuesday. It will then put Mr Santer's candidacy to the vote on Thursday.

But the leader of the Socialists, the Labour MEP, Pauline Green, suggested that the vote could be deferred. 'Chancellor Kohl (who briefed the parliamentary group leaders before he met heads of government) encouraged us to hold hearings and reassured us that if we veto the name of Jacques Santer, his candidacy will fail,' Mrs Green said, adding: 'The parliament has a right of veto and, if needs be, we will use it.'

There are rumblings of discontent, too, among the Liberal group that Mr Santer may prove too weak to defend the Commission and the interests of the Parliament against member states hell-bent on defending national interest. A Socialist-Liberal coalition of doubters could seriously shake, though probably not permanently undermine, his nomination. Deferring the vote, even if Mr Santer were eventually accepted along with the rest of the Commission in December, would give the new Parliament leverage in demanding that the incoming president outline his policy position clearly.

The Socialists, the largest single political grouping in the 567-seat Parliament, are insisting that the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, who is a Christian Democrat, must show his broad priorities are those of the Socialist group: unemployment, greater democracy and openness in decision-making and as Mrs Green put it, 'the creation of a European body that is more than a free trade zone'.

Mr Santer knows he will have to make overtures, but is in a better position than most to convince Parliament he has their interests at heart, having been himself an MEP. He insisted repeatedly yesterday that he intended to work as closely as possible with all EU institutions and, in particular, the Parliament and refused to outline his vision of Europe to the press, on the grounds that Parliament would, and should, hear it first.

Stung by a largely negative press, portraying him as the 'lowest common denominator', Mr Santer made clear that he had not even asked to do the job but had accepted in the interests of Europe and begged to be judged on deeds not words, a plea that seems to have been heeded.

Parliamentarians, critical of the nomination procedure, seemed prepared at least to let the man speak for himself. 'It is very sad to see the squalid wheeling and dealing that has gone on between prime minister and presidents since the debacle in Corfu,' Mrs Green said. 'We must have a more open and honest procedure next time.

'This man has been prejudged, particularly in the UK. We will listen carefully to what he has to say and then decide. We are not going to vote 'no' just to show we can as Mr Major did. If the package is right, and his vision of Europe coincides with ours, then, but only then, he will have our support.'

WHAT THE NEW JACQUES SAID

I don't think you should use the argument that I am from a small country as a reason for why I can't be a great Commission president. Luxembourg has provided four Holy Roman Emperors: King Wenceslas, Henry 4, in fact in the past we have happily rented out kings to all sorts of countries such as Czechoslovakia and when I visit those countries now, I never even ask for the territory back. You should judge me by my acts.

The dispute between Britain and its partners over federalism is a matter of semantics . . . Federalism is the opposite of centralism. To advance the European integration process does not mean you want to create a Napoleonic Europe.

I'll devote myself to the task that is of great importance to European integration: the realisation of the internal market, enlargement of the EU.