Barroso wenst uitbraak uit grondwet-impasse in 2007 (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission is asking EU leaders to sign a declaration next year on the EU's goals and values, as a first concrete step to end the bloc's constitutional impasse.

The commission makes the proposals in a draft paper, set to be presented on Wednesday (10 May), and which represents Brussels' contribution to a key EU leaders summit on the future of Europe next month.

The summit will focus on the question of how to break the institutional stalemate that emerged after French and Dutch voters said "no" to the EU constitution in referendums last year.

The commission states in its paper that "the first institutional step forward could be the adoption next year, 50 years after the Treaty of Rome, of a political declaration by the Member States, the Commission and the European Parliament setting out Europe's values and ambitions, with a shared undertaking to deliver them."

The 1957 Treaty of Rome established the EU's predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC).

Brussels believes that the 2007 declaration should nail down a policy consensus between member states, forming the basis of a "new institutional settlement" at a later stage.

At their meeting next month, EU heads of state and government "should decide ... to adopt a step by step approach designed to create the conditions for a future institutional settlement," the commission text reads.

The move is designed to put pressure on member states to move the institutional dossier forward, despite deep divisions between capitals on the fate of the charter.

The paper also contains some fresh policy initiatives, based on the idea that citizens want "delivery" from the EU and "action cannot wait until there is agreement on an institutional settlement."

As announced earlier, the commission is proposing to move a large number of decisions on police and criminal matters from the national to the European level, aiming at elimitating national vetoes in this area.

Moreover, Brussels promises to transmit directly all new legislative proposals to national parliaments, "inviting them to react so as to improve the process of policy formulation."

This paragraph represents the first clear indication that the commission backs national parliaments' ambition to play a stronger watchdog role in preventing EU over-regulation, an idea which is fiercely resisted in some quarters of the European parliament.

Brussels will also next year present a "fundamental review" of the bloc's single market, vowing to remove remaining barriers for citizens and entrepreneurs.

Citizens' access to EU documents will be boosted while bureaucracy minimised, the commission promises.

The draft paper sees no specific initiatives of policy changes on enlargement, nor plans to soothe the effects of globalisation, which had earlier been hinted at.

But officials pointed out that the document could still see changes at the commission's meeting on Wednesday.