B4-0066, 0074, 0079, 0080, 0082 and 0136/94

Resolution on a multi-speed Europe

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the Council's statement of 28 September 1994 on a multi-speed Europe and the various points of view expressed on the subject,

1.Reaffirms its vision of a European Union in which all Member States concerned with proceeding towards integration have equal rights and duties;

2.Reaffirms that it would be inconceivable to exclude a priori Member States which are ready and willing to pursue their efforts to achieve European integration;

3.Considers solidarity, cohesion and respect for the ecobalance to be key virtues of the European Union, particularly to ensure genuine convergence between all the Member States;

4.Calls on the Member States to commit themselves at the future Intergovernmental Conference to strengthening and democratizing the general institutional structure of the Union;

5.Calls for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference to produce an agreement on revision of the Treaties which will enable the European Union to progress towards political union and make it more transparent, more effective, more competent, more democratic, closer to its citizens and based on an enhanced concept of citizenship with all the Member States and citizens enjoying the same rights and duties;

6.Rejects an 'à la carte' Europe in which each Member State is entitled to dissociate itself from any Community policy;

7.Considers that, if a small minority of states attempted to block all progress during the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference, ways would have to be found of allowing states which want to pursue their efforts to achieve European integration to still do so;

8.Considers that, in view of the major challenges to stability in Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean basin, the Union should be able to call on the resources it requires to play its role as a stable and unifying force, mindful of the need to be effective and to consolidate democracy;

9.Recognizes that the derogations secured in the Maastricht Treaty by certain Member States have given rise to dangerous speculation about an 'à la carte' Europe;

10.Affirms that the European Parliament is an equal partner with the Governments of the Member States and the other EU institutions in all discussions on the future development of the European Union;

11.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the applicant states.