Intergovernmental Conference IGC: revision of the Treaties, the financial interests and the European Prosecutor

OBJECTIVE: to adapt the institutions in order to ensure that enlargement is successful. CONTENT: Institutional reforms are required in order to operate a much wider Union. The Commission recommends: - Qualified majority voting in Council should become the rule, with a very few exceptions. This must be combined with an extension of the co-decision procedure in the European Parliament. - The re-weighting of votes in Council could set, once and for all, the percentage of votes for a qualified majority (currently 71%) in order to ensure that decisions are democratically representative and to facilitate decision-making. - For the European Parliament, the number of members from each state must be specified, with the overall number kept within the upper limit set by Treaty. - An increase in the number of Commissioners is likely to disrupt the balance in the working of the Commissioners. - All institutions must re-examine working methods. The European Parliament must take steps to a Members Statute under Article 190(5) of the Treaty of Rome. Work on common procedures for electing MEPs must be rapidly completed.�