SMALLER EU countries such as Ireland need to be more active in backing the European Commission to prevent the increasing influence of the large member states, said Catherine Day, the top civil servant in the European Commission.
She also expressed the belief the that euro would survive and become a strong currency.
Ms Day, the Irish woman who has been secretary general of the commission since 2005, told the Institute of International European Affairs in Dublin yesterday the future shape of the EU was currently being determined.
The traditional “community method” of doing business was being challenged by an inter-governmental approach dominated by the larger states.
“The current crisis has revived a little bit tendencies that have always been there towards an inter-governmental approach rather than a community-based approach. Pressure is coming from some to have intergovernmental structures outside the EU structures and that is obviously not something the commission stands for.”
She said the current treaty would be outside EU treaties but would hopefully be compatible with them. “Outside France and Germany, most of the other member states are not particularly happy with the clear leadership role they have taken.”
She said there had been a lot of grumbling on the margins and calls on the commission to speak up for the community method, but the economic crisis had made it much more difficult for the commission to play its traditional role.
“I would like to see a revival of strong support from the smaller member states for the commission. As a body it most closely reflects their interests. I think there has been a bit of a falling off of that in recent years.”
Ms Day said there was a real risk of a two-circle EU emerging, and how Britain behaved could have a vital bearing on what developed.
“If Britain chooses to stay and make it work we can keep the EU as we know it today, but if they pursue the role of being a Switzerland or a Hong Kong that some on the Tory backbenches and in the City favour, then we can easily move to having a loose outer circle and an inner circle.”
She said everybody was conscious of coming to one of those crucial moments where big decisions would be made. In a few years people would look back on this time as a defining moment in the history of the EU.
She said under current plans the commission would be given huge new powers and responsibilities, but few people realised what this was going to mean.
“We are talking about a future in which national budgets are synchronised; in which the commission has oversight over national budgets; the power to intervene and call for change in national budgets.”