Santer favours small states keeping Commission seats

SMALL states such as Ireland should continue to have a seat at the European Commission in an enlarged EU, according to the President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Santer.

Speaking to journalists in Strasbourg yesterday, Mr Santer said that each memberstate should continue to be represented on the Commission even when new states in Eastern Europe joined the Union.

Mr Santer's support will be welcomed by the Government, which is battling to hold on to the Irish seat at the Commission. Larger states, concerned at the growing unwieldiness of a Commission which already operates in 11 languages, would like to cut the number of commissioners. Another proposal likely to surface at next week's summit in Amsterdam is the creation of a second tier of less important commissionerships.

However, Mr Santer dismissed suggestions that there should be a relationship between the size of a country and the portfolio it gets. "I am opposed to the creation of a second tier when enlargement comes", he said.

Mr Santer said he favoured reducing the number of commissioners to 20. A way would have to be found to compensate the bigger countries, which would lose a seat, possibly in the context of the council of ministers.

The Fianna Fail MEP, Mr Gerard Collins, said it was vital that each member state retained at least one seat. "If this is removed, it will be difficult to persuade the electorate to support such changes in countries such as Ireland, where a referendum is required to approve changes to the treaties."

Earlier, Mr Santer had addressed the European Parliament on the difficulties facing Economic and Monetary Union in the run up to next week's Amsterdam summit. Referring to the request by the new French government for more time to consider the stability pact forming part of EMU, he said that the EU had to "stick to the job", even if there were uncertainties.

Mr Santer devoted much of his speech to French concerns over high unemployment. While the stability pact could not be tampered with, he promised to bring new proposals on stimulating job creation to a meeting today with the new French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin.

Mr Collins said that unemployment was the main issue of concern to citizens. The revision of the EU Treaty should give increased priority to improving the competitive position of EU industry in the international marketplace, he said.