Cox tells EU leaders to stop 'navel gazing'

The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, has called on European leaders to stop "navel-gazing"  and draw a line …

The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, has called on European leaders to stop "navel-gazing"  and draw a line under nearly ten years of "tinkering".

Arguments over qualified majority voting, national voting strengths, the size of the European Commission and the role of a new EU "foreign minister" will dominate the last stages of a two-year search for a constitutional treaty.

But Mr Cox said such details, although important, meant little to people, and that a constitution accord should mark the end of a protracted bout of meddling with EU institutions.

Mr Cox, who will address EU leaders at the start of their "intergovernmental conference" tomorrow, said: "We must try to bring closure this weekend. We know all the questions - there is not great benefit to postponing the answers."

READ MORE

He went on: "My appeal will be to go for it: make sure there are no leftovers and make sure that the result of this intergovernmental conference is not to have another intergovernmental conference.

"There has been endless tinkering with the institutions and lots of introspection for years. Let's draw a line under that. Let's stop the navel-gazing which we have been doing now for almost a decade. We have made Europe too complicated for Europeans to follow."

He said EU governments should instead tackle 9 per cent  unemployment in the EU, developing its regions, reforming agriculture and concentrating on "the wider world".