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New designs for Europe
lawyers, there is no need for a formal decision on majority voting at summits. A strong presidency could do what Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi did at Milan in 1985: when Mrs Thatcher opposed the calling of an inter-governmental conference to revise the treaties, he insisted on a majority vote under the rules that applied to the Council of Ministers, and she lost. As argued in Chapter 1, there is a strong case for an individual, probably a former prime minister, to chair the European Council. With successive waves of enlargement bringing ever more prime ministers around the summit table, the European Council will require some leadership. The new chairman should focus the discussion on the key points, broker compromises and subsequently work to ensure the implementation of summit conclusions. However, there is a case for retaining one aspect of the existing, rotating chairmanship. The presence of an EU summit in a particular member-state helps to give the Union – which generally appears to be distant – some real tangibility. If the citizens of a country see the heads of government arriving in one of their cities, they are more likely to take an interest in and develop some understanding of the EU. The Nice summit decided that all formal European Councils should in future meet in Brussels. That decision should be reversed, so that those countries which wish to host a summit are able to do so, by rotation. Nine formations of the Council of Ministers are still too many. There need be no more than four, but they would have to have a special ‘super-council’ status. Even a new, strong GAC is not going to be able to oversee the finance ministers’ council (Ecofin). With the coming of the euro, Ecofin has become increasingly influential. Finance ministers such as Gordon Brown, Hans Eichel or Francis Mer will not want the GAC to co-ordinate their policies with those of other councils. Therefore Ecofin needs ‘super-council’ status, alongside the new GAC. A third super-council should be for foreign affairs. Freed of