Belgium to push European integration

Oakley: Belgium keen to shape future

By CNN's European political editor Robin Oakley

Belgium may be one of the smaller countries in the European Union, but it is assuming the presidency of the 15-nation grouping on July 1 with big ambitions.

Taking over the six-month revolving presidency from Sweden, it is ready to push for greater integration and hopes to make real progress on immigration issues.

Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister, will not shun controversy in seeking to influence the future shape of EU institutions.

"Ideas which until a few years ago were taboo and rejected outright as fantasies of Euro-fanatics, such as a European constitution, a European asylum policy or a European public prosecutor, are being advocated without restraint," he says.

"Clearly minds are going in the right direction."

Verhofstadt is plain in his intentions, telling a recent European Forum: "Let there be no doubt about it. I am greatly in favour of further European integration."

There will be no settling of the future European constitution during the Belgian presidency. That will await the Inter-Governmental Conference due in 2004.

But the Belgian prime minister is keen to start shaping the debate on what form it should take.

He wants a European Commission president elected by the "peoples of Europe" and the merging of the Council of Ministers of the 15 countries into a second chamber of the European Parliament.

Belgium is traditionally one of the most federally-minded of the EU states. Verhofstadt and his ministers have signalled their willingness to press for greater harmonisation of taxes and the imposition of a specific EU-wide tax to finance the union's activities.

The tax plan is vigorously opposed by Britain, Spain and some Scandinavian states.

Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders is also keen on common minimum standards of energy taxation across the EU.

The Belgian presidency wants to make a priority of developing a "social Europe" with workers consulted about redundancies and the sale of big company subsidiaries.

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Verhofstadt says: "We want to put it on the agenda to see what harmonisation can be obtained."

One key aim for the Belgians is developing a common policy on asylum and immigration -- plans the EU has been working on since the 1999 Tampere Summit.

Specifically, the Belgian presidency wants harmonisation across the EU of procedures for granting and withdrawing refugee status, on the standard of accommodation given to asylum-seekers and on entry conditions.

It will press for a uniform European policy on the issuing of visas.

The Belgian presidency, which plans a European conference on migration, also promises greater efforts against those who deal in trafficking people.

It pledges intensifying the fight against illegal immigration with particular concentration on the Balkans. There will be a ministerial mission to the Balkans followed by a progress report.

And there will be discussions with the eastern European candidate countries for the EU about illegal immigration.

The Belgians, who had to cope with football violence when the hosted Euro 2000, also want to look at the operations of Europol.

Following an international seminar on the problem of crowd behaviour and rioting fans, they want "contact points" and common rules to beat the hooligans.